Murals on the High Seas: America's Little 'Ships of State'

In1940, the Federal Works Agency's Section of Fine Arts sponsored a national contest to place murals in six C3 type passenger-cargo ships for American President Lines.

Designed by the US Maritime Commission to carry up to 96 first-class passengers and 10,000 tons of cargo around the world every 98 days, each of the government-subsidized PRESIDENT JACKSON-class measured 492 feet long and 9,500 gross tons. (The JACKSON's main hall, bar, library, card room, and dining could fit in QUEEN MARY's Main Restaurant five times over.)

Ignored by New Deal scholars, it's the Section's second-largest anonymous art competition. From over 1,400 entries by 462 artists from 35 states, 22 artists -- including Wisconsin natives Edmund Lewandowski and Thomas Dietrich -- created 72 artworks depicting global commerce, all things nautical, and more, showing that the North Atlantic's "ships of state" weren't the only floating galleries in this ongoing research project.

Originally presented as part of the 2019 CAMM (Council of American Maritime Museums) Annual Conference hosted by the Wisconsin Maritime Museum in Manitowoc, WI.

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