Updates on the Conservancy, the SS United States, and our future museum and visitor experience.
These 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.
Read MoreKaren Hess’ father, Nick Landiak, was a kind of SS United States royalty. Landiak joined the United States’ crew in January 1952 before her record-breaking maiden voyage, and sailed aboard the ship as First Engineer and relieving Executive Chief Engineer until she was withdrawn from service in 1969.
Read MoreSeventy years after her launch in Newport News, Virginia, and a quarter century as a fixture of Philadelphia’s waterfront, the SS United States is celebrating another milestone. This February marks ten years of tireless work on the part of the SS United States Conservancy to celebrate and save this iconic symbol of America.
Read MorePrior to COVID, Jens-Erwin Siemssen, artistic director at Das Letzte Kleinod, had prepared a theatrical production to be shown in Bremerhaven as a tribute to the old terminal that was scheduled to be torn down and refurbished. As part of his research, Siemssen visited the ship at her pier in Philadelphia, and conducted interviews with Conservancy President Susan Gibbs, former crew member and Conservancy Board Member Joe Rota, and former crew member and Conservancy Hampton Roads co-chair Joe Muchulsky about the ship’s history, and the unique stories that make America’s Flagship special. While the program awaits its premiere, now scheduled for Autumn 2021, Siemssen provided his reflections on the ship and the interviews he conducted in a story special to to Nordsee-Zeitung.
Read MoreEven at kid, I knew the United States was a special ship. It was not just some ship called the 'United States'. The United States was more than a great ocean liner… it was the fastest ship in the world! Back then, that meant something. To be on the fastest ship that sailed across the Atlantic was something very special.
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