Choose American Line!

International Mercantile Marine Company, American Line, ca. 1906, Back cover

The On the Water Exhibit at the National Museum of American History illustrates the important role ships have had in the past and in the present. Before airplanes, ships were the main mode of trans-Atlantic transportation. Why not choose American Line as your transport choice for traveling into the past?

American Line “has been specially arranged to accommodate those passengers who want good food and service, moderate speed and to have the best accommodation the steamers afford at moderate cost.”   Based in Philadelphia, American Line typically ran a Philadelphia-Queenstown-Liverpool shipping and travel service to and from Europe. This turn-of-the-century American Line brochure can be found in the Smithsonian Libraries' Trade Literature Collection. Within its twenty-eight pages, the brochure gives advice for travel with American Line and travel beyond the sea—points of interest, rail and alternative ship companies further east, and a foreign money exchange rate chart. A picture of either an English tourist landmark or one of the five company steamer ships features on the top of each page. Although once a part of the International Mercantile Marine Company, American Line ceased to exist after 1925.—Mary Jinglewski, with assistance from Jim Roan