Ocean Liners: Speed & Style

Co-organised by the V&A and the Peabody Essex Museum in Massachusetts, this is the first exhibition dedicated to the design and cultural impact of the ocean liner on an international scale. Beginning with Brunel’s steamship, the Great Eastern of 1859, the exhibition will trace the design stories behind some of the world’s most luxurious liners. It will explore all aspects of ship design from ground-breaking engineering and interiors to the fashion and lifestyle aboard. It will showcase more than 250 objects, including paintings, sculpture, and ship models, alongside wall panels, textiles, and photographs – reuniting objects that have not seen together since on-board these spectacular vessels. Highlights include a precious Cartier tiara recovered from the sinking Lusitania in 1915, as well as a panel fragment from the Titanic’s first class lounge, returning to the UK for the first time since its tragic maiden voyage in 1912. Find out more about the ‘Ocean Liners: Speed & Style’ exhibition from the V&A’s website.

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Diamond and pearl tiara, previously owned by Lady Marguerite Allan, and saved from the Lusitania, 1909, Cartier, Paris. Marian Gérard, Cartier Collection. © Cartier

‘Empress of Britain’ colour lithograph poster for Canadian Pacific Railways, 1920–31, J.R. Tooby. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Photograph of Marlene Dietrich wearing a day suit by Christian Dior on-board the Queen Elizabeth arriving in New York, 21 December 1950. © Getty Images

Wooden panel fragment from an overdoor in the first-class lounge on the Titanic (c. 1911). © Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

Panel from The Rape of Europa for the first-class grand salon on-board the Normandie made in verre églomisé, 1934, Jean Dupas, made by Jacques–Charles Champigneulle. © Miottel Museum, Berkeley, California. Image courtesy Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts

Event website