Monday, May 20th, 2013

Titanic and Carpathia Ads in the Washington Post

Posted by: Ghosts of DC on March 9, 2012 in Old Ads & Classifieds 4 Comments

Wow, these are fascinating. This is the best “Old Ads and Classifieds” post yet.

Scanning the Washington Post from February 29th, 1912 (another leap year) I came across these, frozen in time. The first one below is an advertisement that has both the Carpathia and the Lusitania on it. The former being the ship that rescued the survivors of the Titanic and the latter having an ill-fated rendezvous with a German torpedo.

Carpathia advertisement in the Washington Post (1912)

Carpathia advertisement in the Washington Post (1912)

If that’s not enough, on the same page I found an advertisement for the Titanic!

Titanic advertisement in the Washington Post (1912)

Titanic advertisement in the Washington Post (1912)

Those that saw this ad and booked a trip to Europe on the Titanic never set foot on the unsinkable ship. The scheduled departure of the Titanic from New York on April 20th, 1912, never happened.

There were a few Washington residents on the doomed Atlantic crossing of the Titanic. I won’t reveal their identities, because I’m in the middle of researching the posts, just in time for the upcoming 100th anniversary of the disaster.

If you had purchased a ticket for the above Carpathia Atlantic crossing, four days into your journey, you would have been on the ship when it was the first on the scene of the Titanic disaster, picking up the survivors and you would have seen something like the photo below.

Titanic survivors (history.com)

Titanic survivors (history.com)

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About Ghosts of DC

Ghosts of DC is a blog about the history of Washington, D.C. and its surroundings. We live in a great city, and it's important for everyone to know a little more about their communities, neighborhoods and city.
  • Mark Stencel

    Wow.

    The ad has a reference to the address 1306 F Street N.W. Documents from the U.S. Senate inquiry into the Titanic accident show that was the address of the International Mercantile Marine Co., which seems to have handled matters for various passenger lines — American Line, Dominion Line, Atlantic Transport Line, Leyland Line, Red Star Line, White Star Line.

    http://www.titanicinquiry.org/USInq/AmInq11Neale01.php

    In 1918, 1306 F Street became the location of the Loew’s Palace theater, according to your counterparts over at The Ruined Capitol blog:

    http://www.theruinedcapitol.com/2012/01/1306-f-street-nw.html

    More about the theater:
    http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pnp/habshaer/dc/dc0400/dc0433/data/dc0433data.pdf
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/rock_creek/3824876926/

    The theater was knocked down in the late 1970s. The location is now where you would enter some of the street-facing businesses for The Shops at National Place at 13th and F.

    • http://www.ghostsofdc.org Ghosts of DC

      I’ll give you a wow too for your own research. Maybe you should be writing these posts :) Great stuff! Thanks for sharing.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100003406077686 Bang

    Come see the handcrafted paper rcpliea of the Titanic on display on the first floor of the Central Library. It was created by the very talented James Pepper and it measures to almost 4 feet!

  • http://www.facebook.com/erinmelissa Erin Melissa Winkler

    My great grandmother, my great uncle and grandfather all had tickets for the Titanic. However, my great grandmother was a CHEAPSKATE so when she found that the Mauretania was cheaper she returned her Titanic tickets and purchased Mauretania tickets.

#NATITUDE
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