Transportation

Americans have always been a people on the move—on rails, roads, and waterways (for travel through the air, visit the National Air and Space Museum). In the transportation collections, railroad objects range from tools, tracks, and many train models to the massive 1401, a 280-ton locomotive built in 1926. Road vehicles include coaches, buggies, wagons, trucks, motorcycles, bicycles, and automobiles—from the days before the Model T to modern race cars. The accessories of travel are part of the collections, too, from streetlights, gas pumps, and traffic signals to goggles and overcoats.

In the maritime collections, more than 7,000 design plans and scores of ship models show the evolution of sailing ships and other vessels. Other items range from scrimshaw, photographs, and marine paintings to life jackets from the Titanic.

This is a Model D-77 balloon-tire Schwinn Panther girl's bicycle made by Arnold, Schwinn and Co., Chicago, Illinois in 1953.
Description
This is a Model D-77 balloon-tire Schwinn Panther girl's bicycle made by Arnold, Schwinn and Co., Chicago, Illinois in 1953. Balloon-tire bicycles for girls and boys, introduced by Schwinn in 1933, intrigued millions of young Americans with the promise of personal mobility, and appealed to their imaginations with features that simulated automobiles and motorcycles. A typical model had long fenders, whitewall tires, streamlined styling, and a dummy gasoline tank containing a battery-powered horn. Mechanical features included internal-expanding brakes and shock-absorbing spring forks. Sales of children's balloon tire bicycles increased after World War II and remained strong until the late 1950s. Schwinn was an innovator and one of the largest makers of bicycles at the time.
date made
1953
maker
Arnold, Schwinn and Co.
ID Number
1986.1021.01
accession number
1986.1021
catalog number
1986.1021.01
This dessert plate was used aboard the SS United States, the largest and fastest passenger liner ever built in the United States. Launched in 1952, it was billed as the most modern and luxurious ship in service on the North Atlantic.
Description
This dessert plate was used aboard the SS United States, the largest and fastest passenger liner ever built in the United States. Launched in 1952, it was billed as the most modern and luxurious ship in service on the North Atlantic. This plate was one of the 125,000 pieces of chinaware supplied to the ship by the United States Lines. The china—a pattern featuring a ring of gray stars—was produced by Lamberton Sterling, an American manufacturer.
There were plenty of choices for dessert aboard the SS United States. Menus from a December 1954 voyage—the first taken by the Duke and Duchess of Windsor on an American vessel—reveal a combination of American favorites and fancy confections inspired by the French. For dinner on December 10, passengers enjoyed Old Fashioned Strawberry Shortcake, and Peach Melba, as well as Meringue Glace au Chocolat, Frangipan, and Petits Fours. For luncheon the next day, the choices ranged from Green Apple or Blueberry Pie to Biscuit Glace and Chocolate Éclairs.
date made
1950s
maker
Lamberton Sterling
ID Number
TR.335565.06B
accession number
1978.2219
catalog number
335565.6b
This champagne glass was among the 57,000 pieces of glassware furnished to the SS United States before its maiden voyage in 1952. Launched in 1952, the “Big U,” as the ship was affectionately called, was 990 feet long, about the length of five city blocks.
Description
This champagne glass was among the 57,000 pieces of glassware furnished to the SS United States before its maiden voyage in 1952. Launched in 1952, the “Big U,” as the ship was affectionately called, was 990 feet long, about the length of five city blocks. On its maiden voyage, the ship broke the speed records for crossings in both directions and captured the Blue Riband trophy, an award for the ship making the fastest round trip passage on the North Atlantic. The time set by the United States on the westbound leg from New York to England was 3 days, 12 hours, and 12 minutes, with an average speed of 34.51 knots, a record that remains unbroken.
The SS United States was built in Newport News, Virginia, and was the largest and fastest transatlantic passenger liner ever built in the country. The ship had 695 staterooms located on eight of the liner’s 12 decks. It could accommodate 1,972 passengers in first, cabin, or tourist class. Some 1,011 crew were required to run the ship and serve the passengers.
date made
1952
ID Number
TR.335564.02A
catalog number
335564.2
accession number
1978.2219
The Scovill Manufacturing Company of Waterbury, Connecticut produced this transportation token starting during in 1953. The Scovill Company was established in 1802 as a button manufacturer and is still in business today.
Description (Brief)
The Scovill Manufacturing Company of Waterbury, Connecticut produced this transportation token starting during in 1953. The Scovill Company was established in 1802 as a button manufacturer and is still in business today. Scovill was an early industrial American innovator, adapting armory manufacturing processes to mass-produce a variety of consumer goods including buttons, daguerreotype mats, medals, coins, and transportation tokens. The token has a central legend of NYC.
Obverse: The legend reads: NEW YORK CITY/TRANSIT AUTHORITY.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1953
maker
Scovill Manufacturing Company
ID Number
1981.0296.1619
accession number
1981.0296
catalog number
1981.0296.1619
The Scovill Manufacturing Company of Waterbury, Connecticut produced this transportation token in 1950. The Scovill Company was established in 1802 as a button manufacturer and is still in business today.
Description (Brief)
The Scovill Manufacturing Company of Waterbury, Connecticut produced this transportation token in 1950. The Scovill Company was established in 1802 as a button manufacturer and is still in business today. Scovill was an early industrial American innovator, adapting armory manufacturing processes to mass-produce a variety of consumer goods including buttons, daguerreotype mats, medals, coins, and transportation tokens. There is a K in the center of the token.
Obverse: The legend reads: KEY SYSTEM OAKLAND/1950
Reverse: The legend reads: GOOD FOR ONE/LOCAL FARE
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1950
referenced
Key System Transit Co.
maker
Scovill Manufacturing Company
ID Number
1981.0296.1400
accession number
1981.0296
catalog number
1981.0296.1400
The Scovill Manufacturing Company of Waterbury, Connecticut produced this transportation token starting during in 1953. The Scovill Company was established in 1802 as a button manufacturer and is still in business today.
Description (Brief)
The Scovill Manufacturing Company of Waterbury, Connecticut produced this transportation token starting during in 1953. The Scovill Company was established in 1802 as a button manufacturer and is still in business today. Scovill was an early industrial American innovator, adapting armory manufacturing processes to mass-produce a variety of consumer goods including buttons, daguerreotype mats, medals, coins, and transportation tokens. The token has a central legend of NYC.
Obverse: The legend reads: NEW YORK CITY/TRANSIT AUTHORITY
Reverse: The legend reads: GOOD FOR/ONE FARE
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1953
referenced
New York City Transit Authority
maker
Scovill Manufacturing Company
ID Number
1981.0296.1419
accession number
1981.0296
catalog number
1981.0296.1419
date made
1952
SS United States built and launched
1952
naval architect of SS United States
Gibbs, William Francis
painter
Wendell, Raymond John
ID Number
TR.336767.162
catalog number
336767.162
accession number
1978.2219
date made
1952
SS United States built and launched
1952
naval architect of SS United States
Gibbs, William Francis
painter
Wendell, Raymond John
ID Number
TR.336767.161
catalog number
336767.161
accession number
1978.2219
This painting was part of the Duck Suite, the first-class luxury accommodations that included three upper-deck cabins aboard the ocean liner SS United States. The mural, which was designed by Constance Smith, decorated a wall of the suite’s sitting room.
Description
This painting was part of the Duck Suite, the first-class luxury accommodations that included three upper-deck cabins aboard the ocean liner SS United States. The mural, which was designed by Constance Smith, decorated a wall of the suite’s sitting room. The scene of water birds is rendered in paint and gold leaf on aluminum panels and is the inspiration for the Duck Suite’s name. Renowned as the most luxurious of the 14 first-class suites on the ship, these rooms were typically chosen by the United States’ most well-to-do passengers, from movie stars to British royalty. The Duke and Duchess of Windsor, regular passengers on the rival ship Queen Mary, switched their loyalties to the United States during the mid-1950s and booked the Duck Suite, which was their favorite lodging at sea for a time.
Like everything on this flagship of the United States Line, the mural had to be crafted out of flame-resistant metal. The ship was filled with aluminum, selected by the ship’s architect, William Francis Gibbs, who designed the vessel to be as fireproof as possible. And though the massive amounts of aluminum did make the United States one of the safest ships ever launched, the metallic, modern décor also gave it a special feel unlike any other ocean liner. Most liners were decorated with opulent wood carvings and even had working fireplaces to make passengers feel as if they were sitting in their own living room or library. However, Gibbs put aside this notion of Victorian comfort with his new interior decorating style. The United States was the epitome of 1950s and 60s design: sleek, modern, and practical.
Date made
1950s
designer
Smith, Constance
SS United States' ship architect
Gibbs, William Francis
passenger on SS United States
Simpson, Wallis
Edward Duke of Windsor
maker
Smith, Constance
ID Number
TR.336767.017
catalog number
336767.017
accession number
1978.2219
The Luckenbach Line donated this 1/4" scale model to the Smithsonian in 1967. A portion of the model's starboard hull is cut away, revealing the ship's cargo holds packed with barrels, sacks, lumber, boxes, and coal.
Description
The Luckenbach Line donated this 1/4" scale model to the Smithsonian in 1967. A portion of the model's starboard hull is cut away, revealing the ship's cargo holds packed with barrels, sacks, lumber, boxes, and coal. The engine room, bridge, crew's quarters, and passenger accommodations are also visible. The deck of the model includes winches, derricks, masts and booms for cargo handling. The single stack is painted black and displays a white "L" on a red band, the insignia of the Luckenbach Steamship Company. On the port side of the hull the name "Luckenbach Line" appears in large white letters.
The steamship Lewis Luckenbach was built in 1919 by the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corp., in Quincy, Massachusetts. Its dimensions were 496.2 feet long, 68.2 feet beam, and 37.2 feet depth. This was the second steamship named for the founder of the Luckenbach Line, the first having been built in 1903. With its sister ship, the Andrea Luckenbach, the second Lewis Luckenbach joined the line's fleet of intercoastal freighters on runs between New York and California. The ship could carry over 700 carloads of freight in its massive holds. Accommodations were modest compared to passenger liners, but the rates for "travel by freighter" were affordable at between $215 and $255 for roundtrip passage between Seattle and Brooklyn, NY, in 1936. During World War II the ship was converted to an Army hospital ship and renamed Louis A. Milne, for the surgeon who served New York's Port of Embarkation from 1937 to 1943. The vessel was scrapped in 1958.
date made
1919
used date
1919-1958
ID Number
TR.327977
catalog number
327977
accession number
272605
This automobile model was entered into the 1951 Fisher Body Craftsman's Guild competition by Edward F. Taylor of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. He was awarded third place in the senior division for the model which came with a $2,000 scholarship.
Description
This automobile model was entered into the 1951 Fisher Body Craftsman's Guild competition by Edward F. Taylor of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. He was awarded third place in the senior division for the model which came with a $2,000 scholarship. The model was made of mahogany, painted maroon, with clear plastic windows and aluminum wheel discs.
From 1930 until 1968, the Fisher Body Division of General Motors sponsored the Fisher Body Craftsman’s Guild and its annual model-building competition. For the first seven years of the contest, the young men in the Guild built models of a Napoleonic carriage (the Fisher Body logo) to show their high precision skills in craftsmanship. In 1937 the contest expanded to include model automobiles, which became a source of inspiration for new GM automobiles. By 1948 model cars became the only accepted entry for the contest. Winning car models were both practical and stylish original designs made with superior craftsmanship on an exacting 1/12th scale. For General Motors, the competition was a major public relations success while also serving as a type of design aptitude test for the entrants. For the young men of the Guild, the contest was a chance to win scholarships, cash prizes, and an once-in-a-lifetime all-expenses paid trip to Detroit for the regional winners. Designs featured in these models would often presage production automobiles, as many winners went on to work for General Motors or other automotive companies as designers.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1951
ID Number
1988.0022.01
catalog number
1988.0022.01
accession number
1988.0022
Date made
1900-1950s
date made
ca. 1900-1950s
maker
unknown
ID Number
2002.0075.03
accession number
2002.0075
catalog number
2002.0075.03
A Southern Railway locomotive inspector used this kerosene torch to inspect parts of a steam locomotive when natural light was inadequate. The a wick was stuffed into the spout that led into the kerosene-filled well of the vessel.
Description
A Southern Railway locomotive inspector used this kerosene torch to inspect parts of a steam locomotive when natural light was inadequate. The a wick was stuffed into the spout that led into the kerosene-filled well of the vessel. A hollow handle allowed the torch to be carried.
Part of a small array of hand tools displayed in "America On The Move" - such tools were used in the inspection and repair of steam locomotives. Light repairs on steam locomotives were usually done in roundhouses at the many small locomotive terminals throughout a railroad's system; heavy repairs were done in a large, centralized repair shop serving the whole system (often referred to as the "Back Shop"). Most of these tools date from the early- to the mid-20th century, roughly 1900-1955.
Date made
1920s
date made
ca. 1920s
used date
1840s-1950s
maker
unknown
ID Number
2002.0075.10
accession number
2002.0075
catalog number
2002.0075.10
Building Route 66 in the mid-1920s stirred public excitement. Motorists could anticipate an all-weather route from Chicago to Los Angeles and reduced dependence on passenger trains. One symbol of infatuation with the new highway is the Phillips 66 gasoline trade name.
Description
Building Route 66 in the mid-1920s stirred public excitement. Motorists could anticipate an all-weather route from Chicago to Los Angeles and reduced dependence on passenger trains. One symbol of infatuation with the new highway is the Phillips 66 gasoline trade name. Introduced in 1927, the name was inspired by a test drive at 66 miles per hour on a stretch of Route 66 in Oklahoma. The Phillips 66 sign, unveiled in 1930, combined the trade name with the shape of a US highway route marker. The sign has continued in use with minor revisions. This example was made in 1956.
date made
1956
ID Number
1996.0387.01
accession number
1996.0387
catalog number
1996.0387.01
By the 1920s, Buick cars were considered a luxurious, upscale choice. Growing sales in the early 1950s reflected the strong appeal of style, comfort, and roominess to middle-class families.
Description
By the 1920s, Buick cars were considered a luxurious, upscale choice. Growing sales in the early 1950s reflected the strong appeal of style, comfort, and roominess to middle-class families. More Americans were choosing cars that matched their affluence, taste for fine consumer goods, child-raising responsibilities, and mobile lifestyle. By 1954, Buick had become the third best-selling car in America. This car belonged to Clara Fultz Bentz, a small business owner who ran a lingerie shop in Martinsburg, West Virginia. In addition to its spacious, plush interior, it featured optional Dynaflow automatic transmission.
Date made
1950
maker
Buick Motor Company
General Motors Corporation
ID Number
2002.0266.01
accession number
2002.0266
catalog number
2002.0266.01
For decades, Hawai`i was a primary destination for Japanese immigrants. The cane sugar industry, which dominated Hawaiian life from the 1850s to the 1950s, recruited tens of thousands of laborers from Japan.
Description
For decades, Hawai`i was a primary destination for Japanese immigrants. The cane sugar industry, which dominated Hawaiian life from the 1850s to the 1950s, recruited tens of thousands of laborers from Japan. Immigration increased after the United States annexed Hawai`i in 1898, and continued despite restrictions on Japanese immigration to the U.S. mainland. Japanese workers endured severe and unequal conditions in Hawai`i, which was controlled by white American business interests. Still, Japanese immigrants established a strong and lasting community that supported their families and maintained their cultural traditions.
The need for cheap labor forced plantations to recruit contract workers from China, Japan, Korea, the Pacific Islands, and the Philippines, as well as Puerto Rico, Europe, and California. The unique racial and ethnic mix in contemporary Hawai`i is due to this history. The largest group of workers came from Japan. Unlike other Asian groups, the Japanese included significant numbers and percentages of women workers.
This trunk belonged to Kumataro Sugimoto, who immigrated to Hawai`i from Kumamoto, Japan, about 1902. After hearing stories of quick wealth, Kumataro left for Hawai`i to seek his fortune. Later, he brought his sons to help him on the plantation. One of his sons, Kichizo, married an American-born Japanese woman and started a family in Hawai`i. Inscriptions on the trunk include Sugimoto, the family name, and Hawai`i, the destination. This was a common practice for identification on any long voyage. This trunk or toronko, made of leather and paper, carried kimono and other personal belongings. Immigrants also carried Yanagi-gori, suitcases made of willow branches, and others made of bamboo and rattan, as well as cloth bags.
Date made
late 1800s
cane sugar industry in Hawaii
1850-1950s
owner immigrated from Japan to Hawaii
1902
trunk owner
Sugimoto, Kumataro
ID Number
2005.0132.17
catalog number
2005.0132.17
accession number
2005.0132
This 1953 Glasspar is an example of fiberglass-body sports cars made in small quantities after World War II. Some American motorists, particularly veterans returning from overseas duty, wanted European-style sports cars.
Description
This 1953 Glasspar is an example of fiberglass-body sports cars made in small quantities after World War II. Some American motorists, particularly veterans returning from overseas duty, wanted European-style sports cars. Several American companies began small-scale production of sports cars with molded fiberglass bodies. This type of body could be made in small quantities without the expensive tooling, dies, and presses needed to make steel bodies. William Tritt, a California fiberglass-boat builder, introduced the Jaguar-like Glasspar in 1951 and sold several hundred bodies. The Glasspar body fit on a used automobile chassis that the owner obtained and customized by shortening the wheelbase. A fiberglass body was not only simpler to make; it was lightweight, rustproof, dent-resistant, and easy to repair. And it was inexpensive; a Glasspar body sold for only $950, one-fourth the price of a Jaguar and less than half the price of a Ford convertible. Tritt improved the technique of making fiberglass bodies and made more bodies of this type than his competitors. He understood the importance of casting an automobile body in one piece, and he developed techniques to avoid shrinkage, tearing at metal joints, and mismatched parts. Dale L. Dutton, a Glasspar enthusiast, donated this car to the Smithsonian in 1996.
Major auto manufacturers dismissed plastic bodies following an unsuccessful Ford experiment in the early 1940s, but William Tritt demonstrated that a body made of polyester resin and glass strands was practical, economical to produce, and superior to steel in many ways. Tritt introduced the Glasspar in 1951 and made about 300 sports car bodies by hand over a period of several years. Despite its advantages, the plastic car seemed destined to remain a low-volume vehicle because of slow production and limited capital investment; only one Glasspar body was made per day. But in 1953, General Motors decided to make Corvette bodies of fiberglass and consulted with Tritt
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1953
maker
Glasspar Company
ID Number
1996.0401.01
accession number
1996.0401
catalog number
1996.0401.01
By the 1920s, commercial signs and billboards turned the roadside into an advertising medium. Allan Odell, sales manager of the family-owned Burma-Vita Company, created serial roadside rhymes in 1926 to advertise the company’s brushless shaving cream.
Description
By the 1920s, commercial signs and billboards turned the roadside into an advertising medium. Allan Odell, sales manager of the family-owned Burma-Vita Company, created serial roadside rhymes in 1926 to advertise the company’s brushless shaving cream. He was inspired by a string of signs leading to a service station in Illinois, each sign promoting a product or service available at the station. The earliest Burma-Shave signs boosted sales significantly; the sign program spread so rapidly that the company began a nationwide contest, resulting in dozens of selections annually. Some verses merely extolled the Burma-Shave product, while others made light of facial hair, shaving, and intimacy with the opposite sex. Gradually the company introduced “public service announcements” in the form of humorous reminders to drive safely or suffer the consequences. This rhyme is a commentary on the serious problem of drinking and driving. Verses of this type cautioned motorists to be aware of the risks of expanded personal mobility and drive safely and responsibly.
date made
1959
maker
Burma-Vita Company
ID Number
2005.0121.01
catalog number
2005.0121.01
accession number
2005.0121
This small pneumatic rivet gun was made by Ingersoll Rand during the 1950s. Rivet guns like this one were pneumatically powered by the shop’s compressed air system.
Description
This small pneumatic rivet gun was made by Ingersoll Rand during the 1950s. Rivet guns like this one were pneumatically powered by the shop’s compressed air system. and used in locomotive work for smaller rivets and for sealing boiler tube using the "shaping" swage (the swage is the small tool inserted into the business end of the gun, so that the gun can do its work). This gun was also used in welding work, often with a cutting swage to break old welds in thin steel. Additionally, a variety of different "swages" could be used to hammer home rivets with different shaped heads, to cut pieces from thin steel sheets (with a cutting swage, like a fast moving chisel), or to shape the ends of tubes and flues on the inside of boilers ("curling" the ends of tubes with a shaping swage).
Part of a small array of hand tools displayed in "America On The Move" - such tools were used in the inspection and repair of steam locomotives. Light repairs on steam locomotives were usually done in roundhouses at the many small locomotive terminals throughout a railroad's system; heavy repairs were done in a large, centralized repair shop serving the whole system (often referred to as the "Back Shop").
date made
1950s
used date
1920s-Present
maker
Ingersoll Rand
ID Number
1994.3119.04
nonaccession number
1994.3119
catalog number
1994.3119.04
Whizzer motor kits for bicycles, and complete Whizzer motorbikes like this one, were very popular after World War II. The relatively low cost of purchasing and riding a motorbike made personal mobility accessible and affordable for thousands of teenagers and adults.
Description
Whizzer motor kits for bicycles, and complete Whizzer motorbikes like this one, were very popular after World War II. The relatively low cost of purchasing and riding a motorbike made personal mobility accessible and affordable for thousands of teenagers and adults. This motorbike was purchased by Americo Petrongelli in 1951 when he was 18. He rode it near his home in Chicago Heights, Illinois and commuted to work on it. He also gave rides to neighborhood kids on the fuel tank. After he married, he made the extra seat so that his three sons would not have to sit on the fuel tank.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1950
maker
Whizzer Motor Company
ID Number
2004.0233.01
accession number
2004.0233
catalog number
2004.0233.01
date made
1952
SS United States built and launched
1952
naval architect of SS United States
Gibbs, William Francis
painter
Wendell, Raymond John
ID Number
TR.336767.157
catalog number
336767.157
accession number
1978.2219
In the 1950s, the station wagon became a staple of America's new suburban landscape and a ubiquitous extension of the suburban home.
Description
In the 1950s, the station wagon became a staple of America's new suburban landscape and a ubiquitous extension of the suburban home. This car reveals how one family adopted a mobile, active lifestyle and how station wagons shaped family life.
Between the 1920s and 1940s, station wagons evolved from small wooden buses to wood-trimmed utility vehicles that carried people, luggage, and recreational gear at rural estates, country clubs, and private schools . Strong demand for used "woodies" among postwar, middle-class families alerted manufacturers to a larger market. The introduction of all-steel bodies eliminated maintenance of wooden panels, and sales soared. Sedan-type styling made the station wagon look at home in suburban driveways. Imitation wood decals preserved the rural, elitist look of the 1940s.
Suburban families found countless uses for their station wagons: taking children to school, picking up lawn and garden supplies, carrying home project materials, and enjoying day trips and vacations. The station wagon quickly became a symbol of family activity and intimacy in the outdoors. It served as a mobile living room at drive-in theaters, a mobile dining room at drive-in restaurants, and a home on wheels during camping trips.
Nancy Harder, a southern California housewife, drove this car to schools and doctors with her five children. She and her husband George used it extensively. On family outings, the cargo area was filled with picnic baskets, rubber rafts, beach towels, skis, hula hoops, tricycles, radios, and, of course, the family dog. On vacation trips to national parks, this area served as a playpen. When the children were older, they learned to drive this car, and George taught them to wash and polish the exterior and vacuum the upholstery.
After the children were grown, George used the station wagon to commute to work and haul materials for do-it-yourself projects. It also served as a spare car when the children came home from college.
Date made
1955
user
Harder, Nancy
Harder, George
maker
Ford Motor Company
ID Number
1989.0211.01
accession number
1989.0211
catalog number
1989.0211.01
serial number
U5LY-125372
date made
1952
SS United States built and launched
1952
naval architect of SS United States
Gibbs, William Francis
painter
Wendell, Raymond John
ID Number
TR.336767.155
catalog number
336767.155
accession number
1978.2219
This dessert plate was used aboard the SS United States, the largest and fastest passenger liner ever built in the United States. Launched in 1952, it was billed as the most modern and luxurious ship in service on the North Atlantic.
Description
This dessert plate was used aboard the SS United States, the largest and fastest passenger liner ever built in the United States. Launched in 1952, it was billed as the most modern and luxurious ship in service on the North Atlantic. This plate was one of the 125,000 pieces of chinaware supplied to the ship by the United States Lines. The china—a pattern featuring a ring of gray stars—was produced by Lamberton Sterling, an American manufacturer.
A survey of SS United States menus from the 1950s reveals a delectable array of choices for dessert. For luncheon on July 5, 1953, passengers might have enjoyed Lemon Chiffon or Rhubarb Pie, Chocolate Cream Puffs, Biscuit Glace, Coconut Custard Pudding, Assorted Pastries, Cream Cornets, Mixed Cookies, Strawberry Sherbet, French Crullers, and Coffee or Vanilla Ice Cream. That evening for dinner the choices were even more tantalizing: Special Parfait au Nougat, Marrons Glace, Frozen Ice Cream with Fudge Sauce, Diplomat Pudding with Melba Sauce, Champagne Sherbet, Coupe Glace St. Jacques, Biscuit Tortoni, Savarin au Rhum, Nougat Parfait, Petit Fours, Vanilla or Pistachio Ice Cream with Nabisco Wafers, Fruit Bowls, and Grapes on Ice.
date made
1950s
maker
Lamberton Sterling
ID Number
TR.335565.06A
accession number
1978.2219
catalog number
335565.06A

Our collection database is a work in progress. We may update this record based on further research and review. Learn more about our approach to sharing our collection online.

If you would like to know how you can use content on this page, see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use. If you need to request an image for publication or other use, please visit Rights and Reproductions.