‘A feminine touch’: gender, design and the ocean liner

Abstract

This article offers an interdisciplinary account of gender in relation to ocean liner interior design. It outlines a case study of what the discipline of design history can bring to gender and maritime history. A historiography of the subject is followed by an analysis of the ways in which the spaces on board British ocean liners were conceived of, designed and used in terms of gender. Some spaces on board were designated as female only and other spaces understood to be male only – particularly the smoking room. The concluding part of the article considers the role of women designers within the patriarchal world of ship design and construction, by investigating the contributions of Elsie Mackay at P & O and the Zinkeisen sisters on the Queen Mary. Using primary sources, including visual evidence, the article considers a range of liners, from the Hindostan (1842) through to the Orontes (1929; refitted 1948). This bridges the gap between design history, gender and maritime history and adds to debates around gender and maritime history with a consideration of the overlooked area of design and its histories.

Keywords:

• ocean liner design history
• interior design
• gender
• space
• women designers

Notes

1. See Lees-Maffei, ‘General Introduction.'

2. Votolato, Ship.

3. Quartermaine, Building on the sea.

4. Attfield and Kirkham, A view from the interior.

5. Forty, Objects of desire.

6. Sparke, As long as it's pink.

7. Buckley, ‘Made in patriarchy’.

8. Sparke, The modern interior.

9. Lanz, ‘Interior decoration of ocean liners.'

10. McKellar and Sparke (eds), Interior design and identity.

11. Wealleans, Designing liners.

12. Buxton, ‘Mauretania and her builders', 71.

13. Anderson, ‘Interior design of passenger ships', 480–1.

14. Crownshaw, ‘History and memorialization’, 220.

15. Ruskin, Sesame and lilies.

16. Vickery, ‘Golden age to separate spheres?’.

17. Sparke, ‘Introduction’, 2–3.

18. Hawthorne, ‘Sketches from memory’ quoted in Votolato, Transport design, 103.

19. ‘The Bentinck’, Illustrated London News, Aug. 12, 1843.

20. A Madras officer, The ocean and the desert, vol. 1, 9–11.

21. Bristol Gazette and Public Advertiser, July 20, 1843.

22. Felix Farley's Bristol Journal, July 22, 1843.

23. White Star Line brochure, 1907 available at http://www.gjenvick.com/HistoricalBrochures/Steamships-OceanLiners/WhiteStarLine/WhiteStarLineServices/1907/FirstClassAccommodations.html#axzz3HS2XjRe0 (accessed Oct. 28, 2014).

24. Warren, The Cunard, 18.

25. Orient Line, RMS Orontes, 5.

26. Ibid.

27. On the emergence of interior design as a profession, see Massey, Interior design since 1900, 123–44.

28. Anderson, ‘Interior design of passenger ships', 490–1.

29. The Times, Feb. 28, 1925.

30. Ibid., loose notes in pencil by Lord Inchcape.

31. The Blue Peter, May 1929, page e.

32. Valette, ‘Fitment and decorations of ships', 714–15.

33. For more details about the Zinkeisen sisters, see Kelleway, Highly desirable.

34. Morris, ‘Memorandum re production 1st class cabin decorative furnishings’, June 14, 1935, 3. Collection of National Museums Liverpool, Maritime Archives and Library, Cunard Line Archive.

35. D42/C3/190/B6, University of Liverpool Cunard Steam-Ship Company Archives.

36. Ibid.