DC -- Natl Postal Museum -- Exhibit (MIA Galleries 5): Fire & Ice: Hindenburg and Titanic:
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Description of Pictures: Fire & Ice: Hindenburg and Titanic
March 22, 2012 – January 6, 2014
Level 1: Mail in America Galleries
As the largest, fastest, and most glamorous ships of their eras, the Hindenburg and the Titanic share many similarities. The human tragedy associated with each stunned the world . . . a shock that affects people to this day. Both offered travelers elegant accommodations, and both provided postal services. In each era, the public trusted modern technology to provide safety and speed. And as anniversaries of the disasters are marked in 2012—75 years since Hindenburg burned and 100 since Titanic sank—many questions remain unanswered. Featured are more than 50 objects, including a rare piece of mail sent from the Titanic, keys from the Titanic post office, and burned mail and the salvaged postmark device from the wreckage of the Hindenburg.
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FIRE_120325_015.JPG: Hindenburg and Titanic:
As the largest, fastest, and most glamorous ships of their eras, Hindenburg and Titanic share many similarities. The human tragedy associated with each stunned the world . . . a shock that affects people to this day. Both offered travelers elegant accommodations, and both provided postal services. In each era, the public trusted modern technology to provide safety and speed. And as anniversaries of the disasters are marked in 2012 -- seventy-five years since Hindenburg burned and a century since Titanic sank -- many questions remain unanswered.
The Zeppelin Company of Friedrichshafen, Germany, completed the 804-foot long LZ-129 Hindenburg in 1936. Financed in part by the Nazi regime, the rigid airship, designed to use non-flammable helium for lift, confirmed Germany's technological prowess as Adolf Hitler prepared for war. The U.S. refused to sell helium to the Zeppelin Company, which instead used highly flammable hydrogen for Hindenburg's lift. On May 6, 1937, carrying ninety-seven passengers and crew, Hindenburg burst into flames at Lakehurst, New Jersey. The disaster destroyed the ship in thirty-four seconds, ending the magnificent era of lighter-than-air commercial travel.
Between 1909 and 1911, Harland & Wolff, Belfast, Ireland, built the massive, 882-foot long Titanic for Britain's White Star Line, owned by American J.P. Morgan. On April 10, 1912, the lavish Titanic left Southampton, England, on its maiden voyage. Bound for New York, the ship hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic late night April 14, and sank in fewer than three hours. Of its 2,229 passengers and crew, only 712 survived, predominantly women and children.
FIRE_120325_019.JPG: The New Yorker, August 15 & 22, 2011:
Illustrator Christoph Niemann's cover art titled "S.O.S." compares the U.S. economy to a sinking Titanic, complete with wealthy passengers escaping in lifeboat "bailouts." As she sank, Titanic's wireless operators transmitted both S.O.S. and C.Q.D. distress calls.
FIRE_120325_026.JPG: Replicas of The Heart of the Ocean, the blue diamond necklace worn by actress Kate Winslet in the 1997 film Titanic, were easily the most popular merchandise connected with the film.
FIRE_120325_039.JPG: Titanic first day cover, 2000
As part of its Celebrate the Century series, issued between 1998 and 2000, the U.S. Postal Service honored the 1997 movie Titanic as both the most expensive and highest grossing film of the twentieth century.
FIRE_120325_044.JPG: Hindenburg Movie Medallion, 1975
This Hindenburg disaster necklace targeted enthusiasts of the Hollywood movie production that inaccurately promoted a sabotage theory in its plot.
FIRE_120325_051.JPG: Hindenburg Model, built c. 1990
Pull toys, model kids, radio-controlled aircraft ... Zeppelin toys and models have captivated the public for over a century.
FIRE_120325_060.JPG: Olympic/Titanic Reproduction Poster, 2011
White Star Line distributed posters, such as this representation of Olympic and Titanic by maritime artist Montague Black, to travel agents, who printed their own messages in the blank box at the bottom. The posters have become iconic, and the demand for reproductions remains steady a century later.
FIRE_120325_069.JPG: Twentieth Century Icons:
After nearly a century, images of Hindenburg and Titanic still haunt viewers worldwide. Published accounts, photographs, radio, and movies have transformed the catastrophes into two of the 20th century's most horrific disasters. Both tragedies capture the universality of terror in the face of death, prompting the question, "What would I have done?" They also underscore technology's shortcomings during eras that beatified science and progress.
Popular media has recreated Hindenburg and Titanic disasters in books, movies, and television programs, searing them indelibly into a collective memory. Toys, games, models, and other memorabilia repeatedly revitalize the compelling stories for each new generation.
FIRE_120325_073.JPG: After cruising over the Smithsonian and dipping a salute to the White House, Hindenburg departed for Lakehurst, New Jersey.
FIRE_120325_074.JPG: Regularly scheduled air post service between Europe and North America began with Hindenburg, which flew swastikas on its tail in compliance with German law.
FIRE_120325_078.JPG: The Olympic rings painted on its hull in 1936, Hindenburg flew over the opening ceremony of the XIth Olympic Games in Berlin.
FIRE_120325_080.JPG: Titanic leaving Southampton on April 10, 1912. The last mooring line connecting Titanic to land is cast off.
FIRE_120325_083.JPG: The propellers on Titanic's sister, Olympic, give a sense of the vessels' scale. Each side (wing) propeller was the size of a two story house.
FIRE_120325_086.JPG: Titanic leaving Belfast, Ireland, for her sea trials, April 2, 1912
FIRE_120325_088.JPG: Newsboy Ned Parfett sells his papers in front of the White Star Line's London offices, April 16, 1912.
FIRE_120325_091.JPG: Zeppelin Reproduction Poster, 2011
Travel posters designed by German artist Jupp Wiertz capture the romance of another era. His poster advertising the zeppelin's two-day flight to New York City is frequently reproduced. The Empire State Building has an airship mooring mast, but high winds made using it impractical.
FIRE_120325_112.JPG: Technologically Advanced:
Huge by any comparison, Hindenburg and Titanic inspired a sense of safety with their superior technology. White Star Line did little to discourage the public's perception of the ship as unsinkable. Titanic's double bottom, sixteen supposedly watertight compartments, and luxurious amenities such as a heated swimming pool and electricity made it the most scientifically advanced vessel of its time.
During the 1930s, some inter-continental travelers preferred the relatively speedy giant zeppelins. Hindenburg's lighter-than-air technology raised predictions that dirigibles would replace ocean liners altogether. As nations worldwide struggled through the Great Depression, Hindenburg's ultra-modern design and amenities inspired faith in science and a prosperous future.
FIRE_120325_116.JPG: Hindenburg salvaged girder relic, 1937
Loan from Navy Lakehurst Historical Society
Duralumin rings and girders formed a framework to hold the gas cells. The holes in the girders reduced the ship's weight. Hindenburg used hydrogen for lift because the U.S. government banned exportation of its helium reserves.
FIRE_120325_124.JPG: Hindenburg fabric purse, 1936
Loan from anonymous
Passenger Clara Adams fashioned this clutch purse from the outer fabric of Hindenburg. The Zeppelin Company (Luftshiffbau Zeppelin G.m.b.H) painted the doped covering silver to reflect heat from the surface and, therefore, help conserve hydrogen gas.
FIRE_120325_126.JPG: Hindenburg first flight cover, 1936
The postmark that cancelled the Hindenburg stamps identified the zeppelin as LZ-129, the 129th design of the Zeppelin Company. Deutsche Zeppelin-Reederei, the addressee, operated the zeppelin. The zeppelin was named for the late president of Germany.
FIRE_120325_135.JPG: Titanic Picture Postcard, 1912
Numerous picture postcards touted Titanic's status as the largest ship in the world by impressing both sender and recipient with statistics about her size and cost.
FIRE_120325_140.JPG: Titanic picture postcard, 1912
Relatively few photographs exist of Titanic. Most images purporting to be the ship, including the ones on these picture postcards, actually picture her slightly older, nearly identical sister, Olympic.
FIRE_120325_146.JPG: Four generators produced electricity for Titanic's machinery and passenger accommodations.
FIRE_120325_149.JPG: Twenty-nine boilers supplied high pressure steam to Titanic's engines. They consumed 825 tons of coal and 14,000 gallons of water per day.
FIRE_120325_150.JPG: Titanic's inch thick iron hull plates were attached to her frame by 1 million rivets.
FIRE_120325_153.JPG: When filled, Hindenburg's sixteen hydrogen cells provided the lift for the lighter-than-air craft. Titanic had sixteen "watertight" compartments.
FIRE_120325_156.JPG: Thirty-nine duralumin rings attached to lateral girders form the lightweight but strong 803-foot-long framework that supported Hindenburg's four Daimler-Benz engines.
FIRE_120325_160.JPG: Hindenburg's construction spanned five years, 1931-1936. At Friedrichshafen, Germany, workers stretched fabric, later doped, over its duralumin framework.
FIRE_120325_166.JPG: Life Onboard
Hindenburg's passengers, primarily business professionals and occasionally their families, enjoyed lavish onboard service and comforts. A large lounge, sumptuous meals and superb German wines, promenade decks, a pressurized smoking room and a writing room . . . all contributed to an exceptional experience. The ship's streamlined décor underscored Germany's resurrection after World War I.
For some, a voyage on Titanic offered opulence comparable to that of the finest hotels. Upper class passengers enjoyed gourmet meals and aged liquors, a swimming pool and gym, and many other comforts. Those traveling in steerage, however -- primarily immigrants hoping for better lives in America -- enjoyed no such luxuries. Nonetheless, passage included food, mattresses made sleeping more comfortable, and the tiny cabins boasted electric lights and running water.
FIRE_120325_175.JPG: Etiquette book owned by Margaret "Molly" Brown, 1901
Courtesy Brian, Maria, and Alexander Green
Elaborate rules and manners governed the upper-class Edwardian table, and violating them was an embarrassment. Etiquette books guided those who, like Titanic survivor Margaret Brown, were not "to the manner born."
FIRE_120325_185.JPG: Hindenburg brochure, 1937
Courtesy anonymous
Promotional brochures extolled the luxurious life onboard. The romance of flight plus travel in half the time of an ocean voyage by ship appealed to adventurous travelers, business professionals, and famous personalities.
FIRE_120325_194.JPG: Hindenburg menu, 1936
Courtesy anonymous
Each lavish lunch and dinner had a specially printed menu. The XIth Olympic Games Berlin, 1936, flight luncheon featured clam soup, beef in Madeira sauce, cauliflower, peas, potatoes, and salad. Diners then enjoyed an ice cream bombe, hot chocolate, coffee or tea, and cake.
FIRE_120325_199.JPG: Hindenburg coffee pot, cup, saucer, and napkin holder, 1936
The dining room tables invited passengers to three meals a day with white linens, fresh flowers, sterling silver, and porcelain china service created for the ship. The chief steward and up to six waiters provided superlative service. Passengers placed their linen napkins in holders after the meal so that they could be reused and save precious weight.
FIRE_120325_210.JPG: Hindenburg Napkin Holder, 1936
Passengers placed their linen napkins in holders after the meal so that they could be reused and save precious weight.
FIRE_120325_216.JPG: Hindenburg First North American Flight Card, 1936
Businessman Joseph Gogan traveled with his 14-year-old nephew William, the youngest transatlantic Hindenburg passenger to that date. The postcard, purchased on board, received the special on board postmark and a Frankfurt, Germany, receiving cancel after arrival.
FIRE_120325_221.JPG: Hindenburg first North America flight card, 1936
German boxer Max Schmeling and movie actor Douglas Fairbanks, both passengers, signed this card for Captain Albert Sammt. In 1937, Sammt survived the Hindenburg disaster by jumping from the gondola and climbing through the burning wreckage crashing down around him.
FIRE_120325_229.JPG: Hindenburg's cabins featured bunk beds, running water, and a desk. Single accommodations could be reserved, but all passengers shared bathroom facilities.
FIRE_120325_231.JPG: Travelers gathered in Hindenburg's passenger lounge for card games and music. They enjoyed an aluminum piano in 1936.
FIRE_120325_234.JPG: Printed menus announced the multiple courses that the Hindenburg chefs prepared onboard. Guests ordered wine from a select list.
FIRE_120325_237.JPG: Hindenburg passengers received seating assignments for specific meal times. After dinner, many gathered in the pressurized bar and smoking lounge.
FIRE_120325_241.JPG: Hindenburg's passenger quarters featured observation windows on both the port and starboard sides that opened for fresh air and taking photographs.
FIRE_120325_244.JPG: The sitting room of a first-class parlor suite on Olympic and Titanic is decorated in the Adam style. The mantelpiece enclosed an electric heater.
FIRE_120325_246.JPG: An unidentified couple strolls on Titanic's Promenade Deck
FIRE_120325_248.JPG: Six-year-old Robert Douglas Spedden plays on Titanic's Promenade Deck. He survived the sinking but died in 1915 when hit by a car.
FIRE_120325_250.JPG: Edward J. Smith, the White Star Line's most experienced commander, was known as "the Millionaire's Captain" because some wealthy passengers sailed only on his vessels.
FIRE_120325_254.JPG: Clad in a white flannel shirt, Titanic's gym instructor, TW McCawley, demonstrates the rowing machine.
FIRE_120325_256.JPG: The casual Cafe Parisian offered Titanic's first class diners an ocean view, something unique for a British liner.
FIRE_120325_259.JPG: Hindenburg second North America flight card, 1936
Captain Anton Wittemann, who sent this postcard, had served on zeppelins since 1910, including as navigator on the Graf Zeppelin. In 1937, Wittemann climbed out a window in the gondola to survive the Hindenburg disaster.
FIRE_120325_266.JPG: Hindenburg First North America Flight Card, 1936
Lt. Cdr. Scott Peck spent much of the flight observing in the gondola. He had previously flown as an observer on Hindenburg trial flights and on its first roundtrip to Brazil. He sent this card to a fellow U.S. Navy airship officer.
FIRE_120325_269.JPG: Hindenburg First North America Flight Cover
Captain Ernst Lehmann, who died from the 1937 disaster, and Commander Hugo Eckener autographed this envelope to James A. Farley, postmaster general of the United States. Lehmann sent the greeting using Graf Zeppelin stationery rather than the Hindenburg stationery available for purchase.
FIRE_120325_274.JPG: Hindenburg first North America flight cover, 1936
This registered envelope, posted at the TIPEX stamp show in New York, was flown by Hindenburg to Germany. Realizing the financial contributions of stamp collectors to zeppelin operations, Dr. Hugo Eckener attended the international philatelic exhibition.
FIRE_120325_280.JPG: Hindenburg Olympic Games flight cover, 1936
The sender forwarded this card inside an envelope with mailing instructions for this special flight. Bearing the Olympic Games rings on its hull in 1936, Hindenburg flew over the Olympic Stadium before dropping twenty bags of mail by parachute at the Berlin airport.
FIRE_120325_285.JPG: Hindenburg first South America flight cover, 1936
Graf Zeppelin's flight schedule in 1936 and 1937 took it primarily to Brazil. Hindenburg flew seven roundtrips to Brazil in 1936 and one in 1937.
FIRE_120325_289.JPG: Hindenburg Vatican dispatch seventh North America flight cover, 1936
Zeppelins carried transatlantic mail originating in many European countries. This registered, printed matter-rate cover traveled by plane from Rome to Milan to Frankfurt for the zeppelin post connection.
FIRE_120325_297.JPG: Hindenburg Canada dispatch first North America flight cover, 1936
North American countries sent mail eastbound by zeppelin through New York. This registered cover flew from Toronto to New York to Lakehurst to connect with Hindenburg. The boxed "T" marking is for postage due.
FIRE_120325_302.JPG: Erika 9 Typewriter, 1930s
Hindenburg carried two Erika 9 typewriters, similar to this example. Radio officers used one for telegrams, and passengers used the other in Hindenburg's Reading and Writing Room.
FIRE_120325_306.JPG: Hindenburg Telegraph Form, 1936
Passengers completed a special form to send telegrams from aboard ship. Because the zeppelin followed the transoceanic shipping lanes, passing ships often relayed the messages.
FIRE_120325_314.JPG: Hindenburg Tenth North America Flight Card, 1936
While on the westbound flight, American passengers Joe and Doris Bonell sent regards via postcards and telegrams. The red circular cachet, a rubber stamp marking, verified mail carried by Hindenburg.
FIRE_120325_319.JPG: Oscar Scott Woody's letter of assignment, 1912
These orders directed American sea post clerk Oscar Scott Woody to travel to Europe and return "in the sea post office on the SS Titanic, sailing from Southampton, on April 10th." Sea post clerks earned about $1,000 a year, considered a small fortune by the standards of the time.
FIRE_120325_325.JPG: Oscar Scott Woody's set of post room keys, 1912
The largest key was probably for the registered mail bags aboard Titanic; the smaller keys were likely for desks or cabinets in the post office room. These postal keys and chain were recovered from Woody's body.
FIRE_120325_339.JPG: Sea Post Clerk's chest badge, 1891-1940
Modeled after the badge worn by railway clerks, this badge was worn by U.S. Post Office Department Sea Post Office clerks.
FIRE_120325_344.JPG: Mail Ships:
Both Hindenburg and Titanic underwrote expenses by carrying mail. Hindenburg was the largest flying post office ever. It provided the first regularly scheduled, entirely by air post service between Europe and North America. Titanic was the largest floating post office of its day and bore its official status in its name, RMS Titanic -- Royal Mail Ship Titanic. Travelers on both ships enjoyed onboard postal service.
At least 360 of the 17,609 pieces of mail carried by Hindenburg on its fatal flight survived the disaster, much of it charred. Some of Titanic's mail may survive at the bottom of the North Atlantic; other paper artifacts have been successfully recovered from the wreck. While Hindenburg's crew had no time to save mail, Titanic's mail crew, comprised of both American and British clerks, struggled heroically to save what they could of the 3,364 mailbags while water surged into the mailroom. The North Atlantic claimed the bags and the lives of all the clerks.
FIRE_120325_347.JPG: Stewards provided ship's stationery and British postage stamps in Titanic's first class writing and reading room.
FIRE_120325_350.JPG: A common scene on sailing day -- hundreds of mail sacks being carried aboard a departing ocean liner at Queenstown, Ireland.
FIRE_120325_353.JPG: Passengers could purchase Hindenburg's stationery, postcards, and postage stamps onboard to prepare mail that received unique markings.
FIRE_120325_356.JPG: Hindenburg's Reading and Writing Room offered books, newspapers, a typewriter, and a mail slot on the side of the bookshelf.
FIRE_120325_359.JPG: The post room, where Hindenburg's postmaster handled the mail, was above the rear of the gondola and had two portside windows.
FIRE_120325_362.JPG: In 1937, navigation officer Max Zabel also served as Hindenburg's postmaster. The previous year, businessman Kurt Schonherr handled postal operations.
FIRE_120325_365.JPG: Fire! The Hindenburg Disaster
At 6:25 p.m. EST on May 6, 1937, while approaching Lakehurst Naval Station's mooring mast between storms, Hindenburg burst into flames. Within thirty-four seconds, fire consumed the entire airship. Passengers and crew members jumped from the burning airship, some falling to their deaths. Thirty-five of the ninety-seven men and women on board, plus one member of the ground crew, died. The disaster ended transatlantic commercial travel in lighter-than-air vessels. Debates continue regarding the cause of the spark that ignited the hydrogen and outer covering.
FIRE_120325_368.JPG: Hindenburg final flight Cologne drop card, 1937
Departing Germany for the last time, Hindenburg dropped mail bags at Cologne. The mail had been held from the cancelled May Day flight to Berlin, as indicated by the red-boxed marking on the mail.
FIRE_120325_382.JPG: Customs officials and zeppelin crew examined salvaged mail and other passenger belongings. Burnt mail with enough of a readable address was documented and then sent to the addressees in a sealed glassine envelope via the postmaster of their communities.
FIRE_120325_387.JPG: Hindenburg postmaster letter, 1937
When Hindenburg met tragedy May 6, 1937, more than 17,000 pieces of mail burned to ashes. Max Zabel signed a letter explaining the loss of mail for philatelic subscribers of F.W. von Meister, Zeppelin Company representative in the United States.
FIRE_120325_393.JPG: Hindenburg salvaged fork, knife and spoon, 1937
Courtesy Navy Lakehurst Historical Society
The silverware onboard had been specially created for the zeppelin, and passengers had used it several times the day before the fatal landing attempt.
FIRE_120325_399.JPG: Hindenburg salvaged serving bowl, 1937
Courtesy Henry Applegate
Hindenburg's logo, luxuriously etched into the silver, contrasts with the burnt edges, unexpectedly illustrating the triumph and tragedy of the zeppelin's brief time as North America's first regularly scheduled air service.
FIRE_120325_403.JPG: The Bureau of Air Commerce conducted the Hindenburg disaster investigation. Commander Charles E. Rosendahl, commander of the Lakehurst Naval Air Station, testified first. The investigation could not definitely identify the actual cause of the fire. With no evidence of sabotage, the most probably cause was a "spark that ignited the mixture of hydrogen and air resulting in the catastrophe."
FIRE_120325_409.JPG: A small quantity of mail survived Hindenburg's fire and was salvaged from the smoldering wreckage.
FIRE_120325_411.JPG: Flames engulfed the engine control cars. All but two of the mechanics survived.
FIRE_120325_413.JPG: Hindenburg's landing wheel from the lower tail fin broke away on impact
FIRE_120325_415.JPG: Guards protected Hindenburg wreckage, allowing crew members and navy officials to search for personal possessions and evidence of the cause.
FIRE_120325_419.JPG: Landing crew ran into the intense heat to help save lives. Amazingly, sixty-two of the ninety-seven persons onboard Hindenburg survived.
FIRE_120325_420.JPG: Visitors waiting to meet their loved ones, reporters, photographers, and U.S. Navy personnel watched the conflagration in horror, expecting no survivors.
FIRE_120325_424.JPG: Because hydrogen burns upward, passengers and crew positioned near the windows on Hindenburg's lower hull had extra seconds to escape the inferno.
FIRE_120325_426.JPG: Hindenburg's bow lifted, forcing many passengers and crew to wait a few extra seconds before jumping and running from the falling wreckage.
FIRE_120325_430.JPG: A blaze of hydrogen raged within Hindenburg, destroying the ship in thirty-four seconds. The rapidly disintegrating airship crashed to earth, tail first.
FIRE_120325_435.JPG: Ferdinand Lammot "Peter" Belin, Jr.
(1913-1982)
Returning from his studies in Paris, Peter Belin was the only resident of Washington, D.C., aboard Hindenburg's final flight. Standing at the windows during the approach, he grabbed a post as the floor tilted and other passengers fell. With crew members, Belin rushed to the windows, but the window shut and jammed. Frantic, he broke the celluloid pane and jumped. His horrified parents watched the disaster, believing their son could not survive. His distinctive whistle brought them together in the midst of chaos. Belin later served in the navy, retiring as a captain.
The following photographs were taken onboard the final flight of the Hindenburg by Peter Belin.
These photographs and documents are published for the first time courtesy of Harry Lammot Belin and Susan Lenhard Belin.
What was in Belin's pockets when he jumped? An envelope and a roll of film. Having settled his tab with the chief steward, he had pocketed an envelope with receipts for onboard purchases, including postage stamps, beverages, and a telegram. Although his Leica camera was destroyed in the crash, Belin had removed the last roll of film and dropped it in his pocket. As a result, some of the last photographs taken from Hindenburg are seen here for the first time.
FIRE_120325_439.JPG: Hindenburg's shadow passes over the landscape
FIRE_120325_445.JPG: On the evening of May 6, 1937, as Hindenburg approached the Lakehurst naval base in New Jersey, the 966-foot long hangar stood out from the pine forests.
FIRE_120325_455.JPG: Just moments before disaster struck, the landing crews took position and held the landing flag at the mooring circle. This photograph by Belin is one of the last taken from aboard Hindenburg.
FIRE_120325_461.JPG: Onboard Receipt for Drinks in the Pressurized Smoking Room, 1937
Belin signed this slip for martinis in the bar, where he could enjoy his pipe. After settling the tab with chief steward Heinrich Kubis at the end of the trip, he pocketed receipts. They were in his pocket when he jumped.
FIRE_120325_474.JPG: Salvaged Personal Effects Envelope, 1937
Belin received five previously mailed envelopes salvaged from the wreckage. These were not from Hindenburg's postal operations but had passed through postal systems previous to the flight. Most likely, Belin's personal correspondence was tightly packed in his valise. He had received this item, forwarded to him in Paris, two days before the departure.
FIRE_120325_476.JPG: Salvaged Baggage Claim Check, 1937
Because of baggage and weight limits, Belin sent most of his luggage to New York on the SS Hansa. This claim check was for his bag of golf clubs.
FIRE_120325_480.JPG: Bill Schneider was a postal clerk in Rahway, New Jersey. He traveled to Lakehurst to witness the ten Hindenburg arrivals in 1936. He collected mail flown by zeppelins, and crew members often autographed his mail. Schneider developed friendships with the crew and, as an amateur photographer, often photographed them.
On Schneider's visit to Lakehurst the evening of May 6, 1937, he took a series of photographs of the approach. When Hindenburg burst into flames, his hand-held camera captured his sense of horror as his hands shook uncontrollably.
FIRE_120325_506.JPG: A passenger aboard RMS Carpathia photographed this iceberg near Titanic's wreck site.
FIRE_120325_511.JPG: Twenty-two Titanic passengers huddled in Lifeboat D, the last to leave the sinking ship.
FIRE_120325_517.JPG: Titanic Route:
On her only voyage, Titanic traveled the "Great Circle Route" used by most North Atlantic steamships. Since the disaster, ships follow a more southern route from January to July, when icebergs are common, and the International Ice Patrol monitors ice in the shipping lanes.
FIRE_120325_523.JPG: Found on Oscar Scott Woody's body nine days after Titanic's sinking, this facing slip bears one of the clearest surviving strikes of the ship's onboard postmark ("Transatlantic Post Office 7"). Clerks placed facing slips on bundles of mail to indicate their destination.
Very few postal items survived the Hindenburg and Titanic disasters, so devastating are fire and ice. Although crews salvaged a small percentage of Hindenburg's mail, no Titanic mail survived the sinking. A few pieces of Titanic mail, posted before the ship's departure from Queenstown, do exist. These Hindenburg and Titanic rarities are among philately's great postal history treasures.
FIRE_120325_527.JPG: U.S. Sea Post Clerk Oscar Scott Woody (April 15, 1868 - April 15, 1912)
FIRE_120325_532.JPG: Titanic postcard, 1912
Signed "Love, Ugly" by an unknown passenger, this card addressed to "Miss Gwen" was postmarked aboard Titanic and sent ashore with the mail, probably at Queenstown, Ireland, the ship's last port of call before heading westbound across the Atlantic.
FIRE_120325_539.JPG: The picture side of the postcard shows a view of Olympic standing in for Titanic. The writer could have purchased it dockside or in the ship's barber shop.
FIRE_120325_544.JPG: Captain and crew pose with the recovery ship Mackay-Bennett. Mackay-Bennett, a transatlantic telegraph cable-laying ship, retrieved 190 bodies, including that of Frank Millet, from the Titanic wreck site and transported them to Halifax, Nova Scotia, where families waited to identify and bury their relatives.
FIRE_120325_548.JPG: Titanic cover, 1912
First-class passenger George E. Graham, a Canadian returning from a European buying trip for Eaton's department store, addressed this folded letter on Titanic stationery. Destined for Berlin, the envelope was postmarked on the ship and sent ashore with the mail, probably at Cherbourg, France. The morgue ship Mackay-Bennett recovered Graham's body.
FIRE_120325_557.JPG: Hindenburg disaster cover, 1937
A New York paquebot mark cancelled 176 salvaged unburned pieces of mail four days after the disaster. Having been stored in a protective, sealed container while awaiting postal service on the return flight, this uncancelled mail survived intact.
FIRE_120325_562.JPG: Customs inspectors examined two kinds of Hindenburg salvaged mail: burnt mail that had been tightly packed together and, amazingly, survived the flames and unburnt, uncancelled mail (lower left) that had been in a fireproof container.
FIRE_120325_566.JPG: Hindenburg disaster cover, 1937
Passenger Hermann Doehner posted this envelope onboard, addressed to himself. In Germany on business, he was returning home to Mexico City with his wife and three children. He and his daughter died in the disaster.
FIRE_120325_571.JPG: Three Doenher children traveled with their parents aboard Hindenburg: Irene, 14 years old; Walter, 10; and Werner, 8. Matilde Doehner threw her sons out the window to a waiting crew member. Another crew member helped Irene escape, but her burns were too severe and she died in the hospital.
FIRE_120325_576.JPG: The U.S. Post Office Department typed lists of Hindenburg salvaged mail. This excerpt includes the card below, addressed to Joan Schoonbrod. In the 1970s, stamp dealer Arthur Falk found the lists in a desk stored in a New York City post office.
FIRE_120325_580.JPG: Hindenburg disaster card and glassine, 1937
Salvaged from the wreckage, the U.S. Post Office Department enclosed the fragile, charred remains in a glassine envelope, officially sealing it before delivery to the addressee. Postal officials salvaged only about 160 burned pieces of mail out of more than 17,000 pieces that had been onboard.
FIRE_120325_587.JPG: Ice! The Titanic Disaster
At 11:40 p.m. ship's time -- 9:50 p.m. in New York -- on the night of April 14, 1912, Titanic struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic. The ice buckled hull plates and popped rivets along 300 feet of the vessel's starboard side, breaching six of her watertight compartments. Emotions onboard staggered from disbelief, to resistance, and finally to panic as passengers and crew comprehended their ship's unimaginable fate. In the radio room, frantic operators sent distress signals. With too few lifeboats, only 712 of the 2,229 people aboard Titanic lived to see sunrise on April 15.
FIRE_120325_590.JPG: Helen Crowninshield Condolence Letter, 1912
Edwardian etiquette demanded that important personal letters -- such as letters of condolence -- be handwritten. This writer begins with an apology for using a typewriter, and numerous errors confirm that she in unfamiliar with its operation.
"We still cling -- as must you -- to the hope that Mr. Millet may be on board some ship, not yet in port."
FIRE_120325_595.JPG: Carpathia laden with Titanic's survivors and lifeboats
FIRE_120325_601.JPG: Titanic survivors converse on the deck of rescue ship Carpathia
FIRE_120325_606.JPG: Titanic passengers' families read lists of survivors posted inside the White Star Line's London office.
FIRE_120325_608.JPG: A crowd gathers to await the arrival of rescue ship Carpathia
FIRE_120325_612.JPG: Police keep order in front of White Star Line's New York offices
FIRE_120325_614.JPG: Harold Bride, Titanic's surviving wireless operator, being carried off Carpathia with sprained and frostbitten feet.
FIRE_120325_617.JPG: Funeral procession for billionaire Titanic victim John Jacob Astor IV, May 5, 1912.
FIRE_120325_619.JPG: Oscar Scott Woody's Personal Effects Bag, 1912
Woody's body was the 167th recovered by the morgue ship Mackay-Bennett. Before he was buried at sea, Woody's personal effects, including the postal keys and facing slip shown in this exhibit, were inventoried and placed in this numbered bag to be returned to his window.
FIRE_120325_624.JPG: Telegram Receipt from Carpathia, 1912
First-class passenger Charles Stengel of Newark, New Jersey, sent his children a telegram from Carpathia to say that he and his wife were safe. The ship's wireless operators transmitted only brief passenger messages, angering reporters seeking information.
FIRE_120325_630.JPG: Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney's Titanic Memorial Sketchbook, c. 1913
A committee of wealthy American women, including First Lady Helen Taft, raised $60,000 for a Washington, DC, Titanic memorial "in honor of those men who died that women and children might live." Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney sculpted the memorial.
FIRE_120325_635.JPG: Early studies by Whitney for the Titanic memorial's head and body
FIRE_120325_639.JPG: The monument in its original location at New Hampshire Avenue and Rock Creek Parkway, NW. Later it was moved to make way for the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts and re-erected at its present location, Fourth and P Streets, SW, farther up the Potomac River.
FIRE_120325_645.JPG: Titanic survivor J. Bruce Ismay, managing director of White Star Line, was questioned by a Senate inquest barely twelve hours after Carpathia's arrival. Some passengers alleged that he had pressured Captain Smith to speed through an ice field. Though this was never proven, the press vilified Ismay.
FIRE_120325_649.JPG: Sea Post Clerk John Starr March's Pocket Watch, 1912
This watch was found on the body of John Starr March, an American sea post clerk on Titanic. It probably stopped when the ship sank in the Atlantic.
FIRE_120325_655.JPG: Mourning Picture Postcard, 1912
Many survivors remembered that Titanic's eight musicians played the hymn "Nearer My God to Thee" immediately before the ship sank. The hymn became a popular theme on Titanic memorial postcards. None of the musicians survived.
FIRE_120325_666.JPG: Passengers Michel (1908–2001)and Edmond (1910–1953)Navratil
"There were vast differences of people's wealth on the ship, and I realized later that if we hadn't been in second-class, we'd have died."
-– Michel Navratil
The toddler Navratil brothers were placed in Titanic's last lifeboat and arrived in New York as "Louis and Lolo, the Titanic orphans." When their mother spotted their photograph in a French newspaper, it was learned that they had been kidnapped by their father and were traveling under assumed names. From 1992 until his death, Michel (left) was Titanic's last male survivor.
FIRE_120325_669.JPG: Second Officer Charles Herbert Lightoller (1874–1952)
"I never allowed my thoughts to dwell on . . . those ghastly moments."
Lightoller supervised the launch of Titanic's port side lifeboats. After the vessel sank, he clung to an overturned lifeboat until rescued. As Titanic's senior surviving officer, he gave crucial testimony at the British and American inquiries. Lightoller commanded three Royal Navy ships during World War I, but the White Star Line never promoted him to captain because of his association with the Titanic disaster.
FIRE_120325_672.JPG: First Class Stewardess Violet Jessop (1887–1971)
"Each day it was more difficult to ignore the pettiness, artificiality and frothy gaiety that encompassed a stewardess' life aboard ship."
Two weeks after the Titanic disaster, Jessop returned to the sea as a stewardess aboard Olympic. In 1916, as a World War I nurse, she survived the sinking of Titanic's sister ship, HMHS Britannic, in the Aegean Sea. Jessop jumped from her lifeboat right before Britannic's still-turning starboard propeller smashed it to pieces. She retired from shipboard service in 1950.
FIRE_120325_674.JPG: Passenger Nelson Morris (1891–1955)
"The most remarkable thing that I know in my life, I took metal rods an inch thick in my hands and I broke them. They broke like paper."
Armour Meat Packing executive Nelson Morris and business associate Burtis J. Dolan, both from the Chicago area, had watched lightning from the starboard passenger lounge before Hindenburg's stern dropped sharply. The friends jumped from the flaming ship into a fiery tangle of girders. Morris survived, but Dolan became fatally trapped in the wreck. Morris secured financial support for Dolan's family.
FIRE_120325_678.JPG: Cabin Boy Werner Franz (1922– )
"When the next Zeppelin is ready, may I fly again with her?"
When the flaming Hindenburg sharply tilted, water from a ruptured ballast miraculously drenched fourteen-year-old cabin boy Werner Franz. Soaked and briefly protected from the flames, he kicked open a supply hatch and jumped. The gondola's bounce provided the seconds he needed to escape the conflagration virtually unharmed. Franz spent his life after World War II working with precision instruments.
FIRE_120325_681.JPG: Captain Heinrich Bauer (1902–1979)
"In the gondola there was an oppressive calm; some crewmen were groaning, others fell to the floor and everyone attempted to hold onto something as the pitch became steeper."
Bauer, a young Hindenburg captain, controlled the water ballast during the final approach. He tried to level the flaming ship to soften its landing. At the instant the landing wheel bounced, he jumped from the gondola's portside window and ran to a place of safety. He suffered minor burns but returned to rescue passengers. After the disaster, Bauer worked in aviation and automobile industries.
FIRE_120325_689.JPG: Oscar Scott Woody's Letter of Assignment, 1912
These ordered directed American sea post clerk Oscar Scott Woody to travel to Europe and return "in the sea post office on the SS Titanic, sailing from Southampton, on April 10th." Sea post clerks earned about $1,000 a year, considered a small fortune by the standards of the time.
FIRE_120325_699.JPG: Replica Hindenburg Bookshelf and Mailbox
Passengers could drop letters and postcards in the mail slot on the left side of the bookshelf in Hindenburg's Reading and Writing Room. The walls featured illustrations of the history of mail transportation, emphasizing that Hindenburg defined progress in communications. The steward sold stamps, stationery, and postcards.
AAA "Gem": AAA considers this location to be a "must see" point of interest. To see pictures of other areas that AAA considers to be Gems, click here.
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2012 photos: Equipment this year: My mainstays were the Fuji S100fs, Nikon D7000, and the new Fuji X-S1. I also used an underwater Fuji XP50 and a Nikon D600. The first three cameras all broke this year and had to be repaired.
Trips this year:
three Civil War Trust conferences (Shepherdstown, WV, Richmond, VA, and Williamsburg, VA),
a week-long family reunion cruise of the Caribbean,
another week-long family reunion in the Wisconsin Dells (with lots of in-transit time in Ohio and Indiana), and
my 7th consecutive San Diego Comic-Con trip (including side trips to Zion, Bryce, the Grand Canyon, etc).
Ego strokes: I had a picture of Miss DC, Ashley Boalch, published in the Washington Post. I had a photograph of the George Segal San Francisco Holocaust memorial used as the cover of Quebec Francais (issue 165). Not being able to read French, I'm not entirely sure what the article is about but, hey! And I guess what could be considered to be a positive thing, my site is now established enough that spammers have noticed it and I had to block 17,000 file description postings for Viagra and whatever else..
Number of photos taken this year: just below 410,000.
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