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Ships and Ship Registers: Sources of Information

Passenger Travel

This is a selected list of resources on passenger travel. There are books looking at the liners from particular lines like Cunard and White Star, as well as books looking at the larger and often more well-known ocean liners generally that will have physical information about the ships themselves. We have also included material about the mail steamships because they are often closely aligned with passenger travel. The list, however, doesn't include titles from every country or all titles that may be relevant so please search the online catalog for additional resources.

We have also included titles like timetables that, while not strictly ship registers, can help trace the ships used by the lines and their movements. Also included are mail ships since many mail ships also carried passengers they have been included here.  However, while many of them do have some schedule information, but as they deal specifically with mail but do not focus on passengers, we are only mentioning them in passing. These include: United States Incoming Steamship Mail, 1847-1875, U.S. Contract Mail Routes by Water : (Star Routes 1824-1875), North Atlantic Packets : Departures & Arrivals, 1818-1840, and North Atlantic Mail Sailings, 1840-75.

The following materials link to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Links to digital content are provided when available.