Woolwork Picture of the S S Philadelphia, c.1901, Entering the Harbour in New York

A Woolwork Picture of the S S Philadelphia, c.1901, Entering the Harbour in New York The stitches finely worked against a painted linen background which includes a depiction of the Statue of Liberty, the Robbins Reef Lighthouse and other American landmarks as the vessel makes her way in to port at New York. The S S Philadelphia launched in 1889 for the Inman Line from their shipyards in Glasgow, she was named the City of Paris and successfully operated across the Liverpool- Queenstown-New York route for many years. A model of the vessel was included in the 1891 Royal Naval Exhibition, held in the Chelsea Hospital. After running aground off of Cornwall, she was repaired in Belfast. Now under new ownership, she operated on the Southampton-Cherbourg-New York route, having been renamed Philadelphia in 1901. Philadelphia has another claim to fame. In 1902, Guglielmo Marconi, the famous engineer, used her as a testing ground for his new wireless telegraphy system on a voyage between Britain and the US, the positive results proving crucial in the invention of his revolutionary new technology. Philadelphia’s last years were spent as part of the fleet operated by the New York-Naples Steamship Company and she was sent for scrap in Genoa in 1923.