The great transatlantic liners sail again.

• Author: Maxtone-Graham, John
• Position: Various artists, PaineWebber Art Gallery, New York, New York - Includes related articles

LIFE ABOARD the great ocean liners during their heyday echoed the class differences that existed ashore. In first-class accommodations, elegant ladies in evening gowns, bedecked with furs and jewels, danced the night away in the arms of their formally clad escorts. Down below in steerage, immigrants were packed into spartan quarters, patiently bearing up through the journey, buoyed by the hopes for a new life in a new land.

This era is largely forgotten in a time when most travelers are more concerned with speed than elegance. Thus, the public will be fascinated by "Ships of State," the first comprehensive exhibition of ocean liner history, currently on view at the Paine Webber Art Gallery, New York. Celebrating the major international vessels that sailed between New York and Europe, beginning with Samuel Cunard's Britannia in 1840, the exhibition is divided into four general areas: elegance, immigration, technology, and disasters. It includes more than 300 artifacts from many of the greatest vessels ever built. Original posters, archival photographs, cutaway drawings, detailed scale models, steamer trunks, deck chairs, a bellboy's uniform, passenger lists, ticket stubs, letters, postcards, travel journals, menus, house flags, and light fixtures are just a small sampling of the memorabilia culled from private collections across the country.

Installed in the 10 bays of the Paine Webber Gallery are eight-foot-high funnels and house flags identifying each of the major ocean liner companies: Cunard, French Line, Hamburg-America, Holland-America, Italian Line, North German Lloyd, Norwegian American, Red Star, Swedish America, United States Line, and White Star Line. Ocean liners reflected and promoted each country's nationalistic and maritime pride, serving as floating incarnations of the nations they represented.

Exhibition chairman (and Ocean Liner Museum vice-president) John Maxtone-Graham says: "The idea is to reopen America's eyes to how important the great ships were. Our preoccupation today is with airports, not railway stations or ship piers. We're looking to recapture the way travel used to be, reweave the transatlantic fabric."

Frank Trumbour, president of the Ocean Liner Museum, agrees: "The concept was to have a comprehensive exhibition celebrating steamship lines. It's fitting that we have it here because New York is where the great ocean liners came, so there is a wealth of collectors and memorabilia in the area."

When people wished to go abroad in the old days, there was only one way to travel across the ocean--by ship. Regular steam service first was introduced by Samuel Cunard in 1840 to transport mail and passengers across the Atlantic year-round. Numerous ocean liner companies soon emerged, each adding innovations in speed and/or comfort. Until the mid 1950s, when travel by air first became popular, ocean liners were the accepted means of crossing the Atlantic, both for tourism and business.

"Watching the evolution of these great ships from the mid 1800s to the 1960s is like watching the evolution of American technology," says Trumbour. "There's always that great desire on the part of engineers to apply the latest technology to their creations, and thus the ships got bigger, better, and safer. America's rising standard of living can be measured by its rising standard of technology. For...