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Founded | July 7, 1963 |
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Founders | Edward S. Kamuda (1939–2014) and five others |
Focus | Preservation of the history of the famous ocean liner RMS Titanic |
Location | |
Members | 5,000 (as of 1997) [1] |
Historian [2] | Don Lynch |
Vice President | Paul Phaneuf |
Website | www |
Formerly called | Titanic Enthusiasts of America |
The Titanic Historical Society, Inc. (THS) is a non-profit organization founded on July 7, 1963, whose purpose is the preservation of the history of the famous ocean liner RMS Titanic, which sank in 1912, in one of the greatest maritime disasters in history.
The Society publishes a quarterly online magazine, The Titanic Commutator, and operates a museum in Indian Orchard, Massachusetts, featuring artifacts donated by Titanic survivors and other memorabilia collected by founder Edward S. Kamuda. [1] A highlight for the Society members is an annual convention where experts present in-depth information about various aspects of the Titanic catastrophe and memorabilia is available.
Headquartered in Indian Orchard, Massachusetts (United States), the group was formed on July 7, 1963, by Edward S. Kamuda and five others as the Titanic Enthusiasts of America. [3] Besides Kamuda as President, the other founding officers were: Joseph Carvalho - Vice President, Bob Gibbons - Treasurer, Frank Casilio - Secretary, and John Eaton - Historian. [4] [5] [6] In 1968, membership numbered 125 persons, ranging in age from teenagers to almost 90 years of age. Many became interested in the fabled ship after reading of her disastrous fate in Walter Lord's book, A Night to Remember.[ citation needed ] Membership grew slowly in the early years, reportedly just 300 a decade later in 1973. [7] By 1977, the organization had adopted its current name and membership had increased to 1,476 persons, along with 35 then still-living survivors of the disaster. [5] Twenty years later in 1997, the Society had grown to 5,000 members. [1]
For many years, the remaining survivors of the Titanic's ill-fated maiden voyage were honored guests at the society's conventions. In 1992, the Society commemorated the 80th anniversary of the disaster in Boston, Massachusetts. The event brought together several living survivors, including Eva Hart, Louise Pope, Michel Marcel Navratil, and Beatrice Sandstrom, who enthralled those in attendance with their vivid first-person accounts of the night the Titanic foundered in the north Atlantic Ocean. Walter Lord, author of his seminal Titanic work, A Night to Remember, was another featured guest. Other presenters at Society conventions include artist Ken Marshall and Robert Ballard, who discovered the wreckage of Titanic in 1985. [6]
Principal activities of the Titanic Historical Society include:
The Society also endeavors to preserve the history of other ocean liners, especially the Titanic's sister ships, the White Star Line's Olympic and Britannic (which sank after hitting an enemy mine in World War I), and the Cunard ship Lusitania. The society also publishes articles about various other famous ships, such as the Queen Mary and Normandie, in The Titanic Commutator.
The media frequently seeks comment and advice when Titanic is in the news. On the 75th anniversary of her sinking, the Society's then-President Haas explained the public's ongoing fascination with the disaster: "We admire the great display of courage and heroism — latent qualities in people not often seen in this hurry-up world". [8] Both Kamuda and Society Historian Don Lynch appeared in the acclaimed television documentary, Titanic: The Complete Story , produced by A&E Television Networks in 1994. In 1997, the Society participated in the filming of James Cameron's hit film Titanic and some members appeared on-screen as extras. [6]
Although the Society supports exploration of the Titanic wreck site, it opposes salvage of items from the ship, [1] stating in a 2005 Commutator issue, "the wreck is a gravesite to those that died that night and should be treated as a memorial" to the lives lost. Both the Titanic Historical Society and the Titanic International Society, formed in 1989 by former Titanic Historical Society officers Charles Haas and John Eaton, participate with the U.S. Coast Guard and the International Ice Patrol in the annual April 15th wreath-drop ceremony over the Atlantic Ocean where the Titanic now rests. [9]
The Society maintains the Titanic Museum in Indian Orchard, Massachusetts, featuring an extensive collection of artifacts donated by Titanic survivors. Started by Ed Kamuda, it has been called by the Tampa Tribune : "... the largest collection of non-salvaged Titanic artifacts and memorabilia in the world". [1]
Since its founding in 1963, the Society has regularly distributed a journal to members, The Titanic Commutator. Initially a mimeographed newsletter sent to 200 subscribers, the publication steadily increased in scope and depth over the years, eventually printed quarterly as a full-color illustrated magazine of some 50 pages, reporting on Titanic research and passenger stories, along with other notable ships from the "Golden Age" of transatlantic steamship travel. At the time of the production of James Cameron's film, Titanic, the Commutator provided extensive, behind-the-scenes coverage of set construction and details not shown in the final movie release. Following the February–April 2020 issue, the Society discontinued the print edition of the Commutator, although an online version continues to be available behind a paywall to members. Kamuda's widow, Karen, continues as editor. [2]
Titanic is a 1997 American epic romance and disaster film directed, written, co-produced, and co-edited by James Cameron. Incorporating both historical and fictionalized aspects, it is based on accounts of the sinking of the RMS Titanic, and stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet as members of different social classes who fall in love aboard the ship during its ill-fated maiden voyage.
A Night to Remember is a 1955 non-fiction book by Walter Lord that depicts the sinking of the RMS Titanic on 15 April 1912. The book was hugely successful, and is still considered a definitive resource about the Titanic. Lord interviewed 63 survivors of the disaster as well as drawing on books, memoirs, and articles that they had written. In 1986, Lord authored his follow-up book, The Night Lives On, following renewed interest in the story after the wreck of the Titanic was discovered by Robert Ballard.
SS Atlantic was a transatlantic ocean liner of the White Star Line that operated between Liverpool, United Kingdom, and New York City, United States. During the ship's 19th voyage, on 1 April 1873, she struck rocks and sank off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada, killing at least 535 people. It remained the deadliest civilian maritime disaster in the North Atlantic Ocean until the sinking of SS La Bourgogne on 2 July 1898 and the greatest disaster for the White Star Line prior to the loss of Titanic in April 1912.
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Michel Marcel Navratil, Jr. was one of the last survivors of the sinking of Titanic on 15 April 1912. He, along with his brother, Edmond (1910–1953), were known as the "Titanic Orphans", having been the only children rescued without a parent or guardian. He was three years old at the time of the disaster.
Eliza Gladys "Millvina" Dean was a British civil servant, cartographer, and the last survivor of the sinking of the RMS Titanic on 15 April 1912. At two months old, she was also the youngest passenger aboard.
Eva Miriam Hart MBE was a British woman who was one of the last remaining survivors of the sinking of RMS Titanic on 15 April 1912.
Mary Eloise Hughes Smith, also referred to as Eloise Smith or Mrs. Lucian P. Smith, was a survivor of the 1912 RMS Titanic disaster. Her first husband, Lucian P. Smith, scion of a wealthy Morgantown family with vast holdings in the Pennsylvania coal fields died in the sinking; she later married a fellow survivor. Mrs. Smith's recollections of the sinking have been quoted in numerous documentaries about the sinking of the ship, and she has been portrayed in at least one fictional depiction of the disaster.
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The RMS Carpathia was a Cunard Line transatlantic passenger steamship built by Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson in their shipyard in Wallsend, England.
Louise Gretchen Kink Pope, or Louise Kink, was a Swiss-American woman who was one of the last remaining survivors of the sinking of RMS Titanic on April 15, 1912.
RMS Titanic was a British passenger liner operated by the White Star Line that sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912, after striking an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York City. Of the estimated 2,224 passengers and crew aboard, more than 1,500 died, making the sinking at the time one of the deadliest of a single ship and the deadliest peacetime sinking of a superliner or cruise ship to date. With much public attention in the aftermath the disaster has since been the material of many artistic works and a founding material of the disaster film genre.
Don Lynch is a historian with the Titanic Historical Society. He co-authored the book Titanic: An Illustrated History in 1992 with Ken Marschall and later co-authored Ghosts of the Abyss. Lynch has an extensive collection of Titanic memorabilia and even more extensive knowledge of the subject, having researched the RMS Titanic along with Marschall since the early 1970s. His research includes interviews with survivors of the maritime disaster and dives to the Titanic shipwreck at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. He has collaborated with several other authors and documentary filmmakers as a consultant and archival material supplier. Lynch has appeared on several television documentaries about the sinking of the Titanic.
TitanicBelfast is a visitor attraction opened in 2012, a monument to Belfast's maritime heritage on the site of the former Harland & Wolff shipyard in the city's Titanic Quarter where the RMS Titanic was built. It tells the stories of the Titanic, which hit an iceberg and sank during her maiden voyage in 1912, and her sister ships RMS Olympic and HMHS Britannic. The building contains more than 12,000 square metres (130,000 sq ft) of floor space, most of which is occupied by a series of galleries, private function rooms and community facilities, plus the addition of Hickson’s Point destination bar in March 2018.
Premier Exhibitions Inc Nasdaq: PRXI is an Atlanta, Georgia-based company that organizes travelling exhibitions. As of January 2019, the company owned 5,500 Titanic relics with approximately 1,300 on display in various countries.
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The ocean liner RMS Titanic has been extensively portrayed in films, books, memorials and museums.
Edward Stephen Kamuda was an American historian who specialized in the study of the RMS Titanic. The Titanic sank on April 15, 1912, after striking an iceberg in the north Atlantic Ocean. Kamuda devoted much of his life to the preservation of the Titanic's legacy as the founder and president of the Titanic Historical Society. Much of his research focused on the biographies of the crew and passengers of the RMS Titanic.
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