This past Saturday, I received a visit from a Ruth Kruger, a Bay Harbor Island resident who had called the museum expressing interest in donating some ocean liner materials from the 1930s. Ms. Kruger arrived at the library around 4:00 PM, bringing with her a bag containing some memorabilia from several cruises her parents had taken in 1933 and 1934. Her collection, mostly in pristine condition, included such items as a complete set of unbound issues of the Resolute Observer, a periodical published for the passengers sailing aboard the S.S. Resolute at sea, running from January 8, 1933 through May 17, 1933. She also brought with her a partial photograph album for that same world cruise with an additional 10 loose professional black and white photographs; thirty shore excursion programs from the same; a schedule, and a price list; three rare certificates; and finally, a bound edition of The Polynesian, a periodical printed for the S.S. Lurline’s South Seas and Oriental cruise in 1934.
Naturally I was delighted by this unsolicited gift, and inquiring as to how she had come to think of us as a permanent home for her materials, she handed me a clipping of an article printed in The Miami Herald some months back. Entitled “Cruises Cached,” the article in the neighbors section had announced the donation by Laurence Miller of his incredible collection of promotional materials from the various cruise line companies in the post-war period. Added to our already extensive holdings of advertising brochures, menus, schedules of the interwar period, the Wolfsonian-FIU library is fast becoming one of the premier repositories of cruise ship memorabilia in the country. Pictured here are a few examples from Ms. Kruger’s most recent gift to our growing collection.
