Updates on the Conservancy, the SS United States, and our future museum and visitor experience.
Eight-year-old Willie Gibbs stared out the window of the horse-drawn coach as it rumbled down Philadelphia’s cobblestone streets toward the banks of the Delaware River. It was 12 November 1894, and the Gibbs family was heading to the William Cramp & Sons shipyard to watch the launch of SS St. Louis, billed as the largest and most spectacular ship ever built in America.
Read MoreOf all the great ship designers, perhaps none is more inextricably linked to a single, exceptional vessel, than William Francis Gibbs and the SS United States. Yet to focus entirely on this culminating achievement, this manifestation of his ‘big ship’ ideal, is to miss out on the life of an extraordinary and complex man.
Read More"...But being inside you can feel the energy. There is a presence in the room. Maybe it's the dignitaries, the stars of stage and film that walked its stern. Or maybe just the thousands of former passengers that have stayed in the cabins that makes you feel she has something left to give."
Read MoreThese safety requirements challenged the team of women designers – led by Dorothy Marckwald and Anne Urquhart – who created the ship’s celebrated mid-century modern interiors using only fireproof materials. They commissioned works from female artists, such as Gwen Lux’s “Expressions of Freedom,” Hildreth Meiere’s “The Mississippi: Father of Waters,” and Mira Jebwadnik van Doren’s vitreous enameled tabletops and plaques of North American birds.
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