When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
This original 1958 front-strike matchcover commemorates USS Nautilus (SSN-571), boldly identifying the submarine as the “World’s First Nuclear Powered Ship.” Produced by Lion Match Co. of New York, its vivid atomic-age design places the dark submarine silhouette against a red field surrounded by looping atomic orbits — a fitting graphic for one of the defining technological achievements of the early Cold War. The Smithsonian National Postal Museum catalogs a USS Nautilus matchbook carrying this same wording and dates it to 1958.
Nautilus had been commissioned in 1954 and put to sea under nuclear power in January 1955, demonstrating a kind of underwater endurance that changed submarine warfare. The year represented by this matchcover became still more significant on August 3, 1958, when Nautilus passed beneath the geographic North Pole during Operation Sunshine — the first ship ever to accomplish the crossing. This cover does not specifically advertise that voyage, but it survives from the very year Nautilus became an international symbol of nuclear-powered exploration and naval technology. Its submarine-and-atom artwork offers a particularly vivid glimpse into the confidence, fascination and technological ambition surrounding America's atomic age.
The Details
Advertiser/Subject: USS Nautilus
Affiliation: United States Navy
Hull Number: SSN-571
Slogan: “World’s First Nuclear Powered Ship”
Featured Imagery: USS Nautilus submarine with atomic-orbit design
Date: 1958
Match Manufacturer: Lion Match Co., Inc.
Match Manufacturer Location: New York City, New York
Carefully packed and shipped by Strange Trading Co.
