Ship plans primary source case study : reflections of society and culture

Author / Creator

Spinney, Erin, author

Available as

Online

Summary

On the surface, ship plans might seem to be only useful for building and designing ships. However, ship plans, like other visual historical documents, can illustrate much more for the historian and...

On the surface, ship plans might seem to be only useful for building and designing ships. However, ship plans, like other visual historical documents, can illustrate much more for the historian and researcher. As we will explore here, ship plans carry insights from the time they were created and allow for analysis of social history including race, class, and gender. They are also fascinating technological documents that showcase the technology in use at the time the ships were built. Finally, ship plans and the marketing of these plans in travel brochures enable the historian to examine broader social, cultural, and political shifts in the early twentieth century. This case study will examine two sets of ship plans, the R.M.S. Lusitania launched in 1906 and the "Four Aces" ships included in promotional brochures for the Mediterranean sailings of cruise company American Export Lines between 1932 and 1935. The comparison of these ship plans will explore elements of social and cultural history, technological history, and the development of leisure cruising.

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