Henry Dreyfuss designs the ocean liner

Abstract

Between 1946 and 1951, Henry Dreyfuss designed six ocean liners for the American Export Lines, Inc. As one of the foremost industrial designers of the twentieth century, he not only designed the interior spaces but also eventually organized the entire project to facilitate communication and collaboration between the designers, builders, and the shipping line to produce the best ocean liners possible. In doing so, Dreyfuss drew upon his previous experience designing other forms of transportation, including trains and airplanes, to achieve workable solutions to problems of organization, maintenance, and livability in these floating environments. He acknowledged that the practical experience and knowledge of his colleagues, in terms of shipbuilding and running a business, influenced his own approaches. This project reconciles three fields that have been separate scholarly entities since the 1970s, as far as ocean liners have been concerned: the social and design history of ocean liner travel, the engineering and structural considerations of large ship design, and the business considerations of running a complex transportation system as part of the American Merchant Marine. The author cross-references Dreyfuss's working drawings and writings with the surviving business records of the American Export Lines and contemporary trade publications to create a full understanding Dreyfuss's working process. Using six vessels as a case study, this thesis places these disparate focuses of study back into dialogue with each other, as they would have been during Dreyfuss's collaboration with American Export Lines.