I spent an afternoon recently talking about vintage cruise posters.

It was research for an article about a major new exhibition, Sail Away: Liverpool Shipping Posters [see above], which just opened at the Merseyside Maritime Museum in Liverpool’s Albert Dock.

The posters, produced between 1880 and 1997 to publicise cruise travel, bring to life the history of cruise travel through the ages and include posters from Liverpool’s golden period in the 1950s.

According to Roy Irlam, head of framing conversation for National Museums Liverpool, who prepared the images for public display:

“The return of cruise ships is restoring Liverpool’s pride as a maritime city.”

Here’s an extract:

The posters, often featuring striking images of the ships at their ocean-going finest, would have been displayed at cruise terminals and railway stations across Britain to tempt passengers to choose a particular line or destination.

Roy uses traditional methods to prepare artifacts from textiles to sculpture for public display.

“It is,” he nods, “with doors opening in galleries, the humidity of groups of people and all that shedding skin, surprisingly technical.”

Read the full story in the Daily Telegraph’s Cruise Style supplement (June issue).

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