M.M. Cloutier, “History: How the Titanic’s Richest Survivor Enjoyed Her Time in Palm Beach,” The Palm Beach Post, May 20, 2025, https://www.palmbeachpost.com/story/news/local/2025/05/20/history-the-palm-beach-years-of-titanic-survivor-madeleine-astor/83344203007/.
U.S. Library of Congress
Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons
After the death of her husband, John Jacob Astor IV, Madeline Astor would give birth to a son who she named for his father. She decided to reside in Palm Beach, Florida where her husband had spent winters. Becoming a prominent figure locally, she would remarry twice. The first marriage was to a childhood friend and the other a boxer. Both marriages ended in divorce. She died in 1940 at age 46 in Palm Beach, Florida. She is buried next to her mother in a mausoleum at Trinity Church Cemetery in New York City.
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Rhys Gregory, “Re-enact the ‘Titanic’s Last Meal’ at Mid Wales hotel’s dining experience,” Wales247.Co.Uk, May 20, 2025, https://www.wales247.co.uk/re-enact-the-titanics-last-meal-at-mid-wales-hotels-dining-experience.
Photo: AP
The Metropole Hotel & Spa in Llandrindod Wells is inviting guests to attend a theatrical re-enactment of the Titanic’s last meal in a ‘Queen of the Ocean’ themed dining experience on October 11. Captain Smith and his crew, from Histoire Productions, will welcome guests on board the RMS Titanic on her maiden voyage and is encouraging them to “embrace the elegance of 1910s fashion” by wearing era-specific clothing, although it’s not mandatory. The evening will begin at 7 pm when Mabel Bennett, the first class stewardess, calls guests to their tables, imagining that it’s April 10, 1912 and first-class passengers are about to board the “unsinkable” Titanic. A three-course meal, replicated from an actual menu found on a first-class survivor, will be served throughout the evening, as guests watch the captain and some of the female crew respond to the impending disaster.
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Maria Okanrende, “Incredible True Story of Forgotten Titanic Hero: Socialite’s Courageous Mission to Rescue Passengers…,” Mail Online, May 19, 2025, https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-14703323/Real-hero-Titanic-helped-survivors.html.
Photo:Public Domain (US Library of Congress, digital id# cph 3c21013)
However one moneyed woman did, and the story of her selfless deeds in the hour of disaster is perhaps as striking as any told in a Hollywood blockbuster. Margaret Brown was a wealthy American socialite who boarded the Titanic as a first class passenger at Cherbourg, France, the vessel’s first stop after leaving Southampton. Ironically her bravery on the doomed ship posthumously earned her the nickname ‘The Unsinkable Molly Brown’; her actions so revered that her life was later celebrated in a 1960 Broadway musical of the same name. Those in the know have hailed Margaret for her courageous attempts to rescue fellow survivors that night, despite the undertaking threatening her own safety.
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Harry Howard, “Did The ‘Coward’ of the Titanic REALLY Do Anything Wrong? Moment Relative of Maligned White Star…,” Mail Online, May 19, 2025, https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14719491/Did-Coward-Titanic-REALLY-wrong-Moment-relative-maligned-White-Star-Line-chief-says-sorry-granddaughter-woman-husband-died-1912-disaster.html.
Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons
Shipping chief Joseph Bruce Ismay famously survived the sinking of his own pride and joy, the Titanic, by mysteriously finding a place in a lifeboat even though they were reserved for women and children. His fifth cousin and chief defender, author Cliff Ismay, has long insisted that the White Star Line boss has been unfairly treated by history. But in a Channel 4 documentary airing tonight, Mr Ismay goes as far as apologising to the granddaughter of a survivor of the 1912 disaster whose new husband died after being told that her spouse was turned away from the same lifeboat.
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Unknown Author
Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons
Maddie Rhodes, “New Titanic Exhibit Opens in Denver With ‘Immersive’ Experience,” KDVR.Com, last modified May 16, 2025, https://kdvr.com/denver-guide/new-titanic-exhibit-opens-in-denver-with-immersive-experience/.
There’s a new Titanic exhibit in Denver that has an “immersive” experience involving the final moments of the shipwreck. The Titanic: An Immersive Voyage opened at the Exhibition Hub Art Center in Denver. The exhibit includes the history of the Titanic with over 90 artifacts, recreations of rooms and immersive videos with 3D views that take you on board as a passenger.
For information on tickets, dates and hours of operation, go to Titanic: An Immersive Voyage.
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Suggested Titanic Books
Behe, G. (2012). On board RMS Titanic: Memories of the Maiden Voyage. The History Press.
Brewster, H. (2013). Gilded Lives, Fatal Voyage: The Titanic’s First-Class Passengers and Their World. National Geographic Books.
Eaton John P. & Haas Charles, TITANIC TRIUMPH AND TRAGEDY, SECOND EDITION, W.W. Norton & Company, New York, New York, 1995 First American Edition
Lord, Walter, A NIGHT TO REMEMBER, Holt Rinehart and Winston, New York, New York, 1955. Multiple revisions and reprints, notably Illustrated editions (1976,1977,1978 etc.)
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