The SS United States remains an incredible engineering and design innovation and an iconic symbol of her namesake nation. But the Big U is more than a 990-foot-long masterpiece in steel and aluminum. She teems with the stories and memories of the passengers, officers, and crew who walked her decks.
To celebrate and share these stories, the Conservancy is launching an expanded oral history initiative, "The Observation Lounge". This builds on the Conservancy's decade of work collecting and documenting the ship's history. We have connected with hundreds of former passengers and crew through events, interviews, letters, photographs, and home movie footage. These materials are an essential component of the Conservancy's growing curatorial collection.
Now, we are embarking on an exciting new phase of this work. On October 19, we will be launching an audio recording series, which will feature interviews with fascinating people with personal connections to the SS United States. You won't want to miss our first set of stories, ranging from the adventures of a night porter (who saw an unexpected show in the theater!) to a swimming pool elevator operator (who made a big mistake!) to an adventurous passenger who snuck into one of the ship's lifeboats (when the ship was not sinking!)
"The Observation Lounge" will be an ongoing project. If you are interested in participating, please use the link below to contact our curatorial team. We would love to hear from you!
