The Mariners’ Museum has also donated a serving cabinet from the First Class Dining Room, several structural items that were given to the museum by Frederic Gibbs, brother of the ship’s designer William Francis Gibbs, as well as a medallion commemorating the ship’s maiden voyage.
The donation includes a series of spectacular black and white photographs by Albert W. Durant of the SS United States during its Top Secret trial runs in early 1952. The photographs taken by Durant, Williamsburg, Virginia’s first African American city-licensed photographer, depict African-American kitchen staff and stewards aboard the SS United States. The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation’s John D. Rockefeller Library also owns a set of the images and was the original source of the donation.
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