Bristol Dockyards launch new museum for the SS Great Britain, centring stories of the ship’s passengers

The site that is home to the SS Great Britain, the world’s first modern ship, has been rebranded as Bristol Dockyards alongside the opening of a state-of-the-art new museum.
The redevelopment, designed by renowned architecture practice Ralph Appelbaum Associates, has added 2,000 square feet of exhibition space. Using newly discovered material, interactive exhibits and history discovered by the people of Bristol, the new museum explores the impact of the ship on the world, on the lives of those on board, and on the places to which it travelled. From technological revolution to emigration, trade, culture and globalisation, the exhibits will take visitors through the world the SS Great Britain shaped.

The SS Great Britain was the first modern ship. Made of metal and with engines and a propeller, it was bigger and faster than anything before. Its size and speed shrank the world. Between 1845 and 1886, it reached every inhabited continent and carried passengers from 51 nations. Through 5 years of community research with local researchers, the museum’s new curation reveals previously untold human stories from the ship’s 41 years of service, spanning her construction in Bristol in the 1840s to her voyages to New York, Australia, India and San Francisco.

Flint Culture is led on media relations and digital strategy for the rebrand and new museum, securing print, broadcast and social media coverage to reveal the new museum’s content. Media coverage secured to date includes broadcast features and interviews on BBC Radio Bristol and BBC Points West, as well as print and online coverage including The Times, The Guardian, BBC News online, The Daily Telegraph, Smithsonian Magazine, The Bristol Post and Museums’ Journal.