For November 6th’s ‘in 1878’ fact, we found that Raymond Asquith, the eldest son of the British Prime Minister, H.H. Asquith, was born. Raymond was part of the team that investigated the sinking of the Titanic (Wikipedia). We were intrigued and couldn’t help ourselves with doing a little investigating about the letters that were sent onboard.

The Titanic, the British passenger liner that was labeled “The Unsinkable Ship,” set sail in April 1912. Weighing more than thirty-one tons and defining the epitome of luxury, the ship glided 2,227 people towards New York City from Southampton, England (Encyclopedia Britannica). The Titanic’s unfortunate fate with an iceberg solidified its infamy in history and made it a household name of tragedy. Now laying on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, the Titanic is forever sunk, but some incredible artifacts remain that tell the story of the four days at sea. The most astounding ones are photographs of passengers, diaries, and yes, the letters.

Cbsnews.com did a series last year for the 100 year anniversary of the Titanic, and one of the articles was about the auctioning off of letters and photographs from the ship. They have several examples of the letters written onboard and some are even written on RMS Titanic stationery (cbsnews.com).

Jessica Campbell Swoyer,