Opulence and elegance on the high seas – The Boston Globe – The Boston Globe

F. Earl Christy, design for a poster for the White Star Line and Moet & Chandon, about 1912.

I was riveted by the idea that the most opulent hotel spaces one could conceive of were actually created to float on the sea, said Dan Finamore, the Peabody Essex Museum s curator of maritime art and history. Thats really where this exhibit began.

The Peabody Essex maintains an extensive collection of historic maritime technology, but Finamore said there had been little focus on the cultural impact of luxury ocean liners. As he started looking at photographs of the interiors of these grand dames of the ocean, specifically from the mid-19th to the late 20th century, he realized that he had the beginnings of a swanky exhibition. The result of that idea and subsequent research is Ocean Liners: Glamour, Speed and Style. It debuts in Salem this weekend, and runs through Oct. 9.

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No one had ever really focused on ocean liners as a means of conveying and communicating design ideas, and cultural values, he said. On top of that, theres the whole promotional side of ocean liners.

The PEM exhibition features nearly 200 works such as paintings, sculpture, models, furniture, lighting, wall panels, textiles, fashion, photographs, posters, and film.

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Finamore teamed with a curator from Londons Victoria and Albert Museum to create the show, which it is billing as the first of its kind. After its debut at PEM, the show moves to the Victoria and Albert in 2018. We chatted with Finamore about the gilded age of these floating hotels, and what it was like aboard cruise ships before norovirus and waterslides.

Courtesy of Peabody Essex Museum

Bremen Europe Norddeutscher Lloyd-Bremen, "Die Kommenden Grossbauten"

Q. At what point did ships start evolving from mere transportation to a posh way to vacation?

A. It was a very long, gradual, transition. From the earliest years these ships were really just viewed as just a means of conveyance for those who had to travel. Over the course of time, immigration is reduced and they replaced that with a tourist class, so more people are traveling in optional ways. That just ratchets up the competition. You dont have to travel so they need to entice you to travel. The diversity of activity areas really kicks in around the 1930s when youve got a number of different ships that are essentially evoking a nations values. The Queen Mary is like an English country house at sea.

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Soon they try to anticipate every single demand that they think the clients will want. Eventually the destination because almost immaterial.

Peabody Essex Museum

Kenneth Shoesmith, Cunard Line, Europe, America, 1929, color lithograph.

Q. Was there a decade in the 20th century when the design of ocean liners reached its zenith?

A. I would say that the people have very special affinity for the 1930s because of the Queen Mary and the Normandie. But before World War I there were fabulous Beaux-Arts style boats. It was the floating palaces era. You had the Mauretania, the Titanic, and the Aquitania.

Theres also the Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse and all the German ships which were really over-the-top. They were palatial. They had Renaissance revival interiors or Palladian interiors. You might walk from one room to the next and youve gone from Versailles to a medieval castle.

Ive also learned over the course of the project is that the 1950s were a pretty good time in ocean liner design as well. And that is where you see a rise in the Italian and American ships.

Q. People often think of the Titanic when they think of the glamour and glitz of these ships. Did the sinking of the Titanic dampen enthusiasm for cruising?

A. Thats an interesting question. I havent seen any firm documentation that shows that people stopped traveling. It was still the heyday. The things that stopped people from traveling, of course, were things like the Lusitania. People took trips on the Lusitania when the Germans had already announced they were looking to sink an ocean liner.

The Titanic was really shocking in its day. Then there were investigations, and they kept going with the marketing statements that we fixed it, and everything will be OK now. People always want the biggest, best, latest, and greatest. Thats what the Titanic represented. We still see that today with massive cruise ships that are introduced every year. It was just a different kind of excess 100 years ago.

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Opulence and elegance on the high seas - The Boston Globe - The Boston Globe