Harry Elkins Widener
Age: 27
Residence: Philadelphia, PA
Occupation: Gentleman
Class: First class
Cabin: C-82
Survived? No
Harry Widener was traveling home to Philadelphia with his parents George and Eleanor Widener after several weeks in London and Paris. The Wideners were one of the wealthiest and most prominent families in America, enjoying the same celebrity afforded to other millionaire families of the time (Astor, Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, Carnegie, etc.). Harry's father made his fortune as the owner of the Philadelphia Traction Company, which operated every streetcar line in Philadelphia.
The Wideners were building a summer home in Newport, RI, and had traveled to Europe to purchase artwork for the new estate. Harry, an avid collector of rare books, seized the opportunity to purchase several antique volumes for his collection. By age 27, Harry's personal library contained an impressive 3,500 books. He boarded Titanic with an extremely valuable 1598 edition of Bacon's Essais.
Harry always fulfilled his social obligations, attending his mother's charity balls at the family estate, Lynnewood, with his younger brother and sister. However, Harry was generally quiet and bookish, preferring the characters in Shakespeare's plays to the coquettes of Philadelphia's high society.
On the night of the sinking, Harry joined his parents on the boat deck, and the three of them were sent to the promenade to board lifeboat 4. An hour and a half passed while crew members figured out how to open the promenade windows to let passengers through. By the time they opened the windows, only boat 4 and the collapsibles were left.
Harry helped his mother into the boat and bid her goodbye, stepping back to join his father. He was urged by his friend William Carter to try to save himself, but Harry refused, saying, "I think I'll stick to the big ship, Billy, and take a chance." Carter escaped in lifeboat C minutes later.
Harry stayed by his father's side until the end. Both perished, and their bodies were never recovered.
In Harry's memory, his mother funded the construction of the Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library at his alma mater, Harvard University. She donated his entire 3,500-volume collection so that, in death, he could enrich the lives of young scholars for generations to come.
3 comments:
Same family of Widener University fame?
The very same. The Wideners were the founding benefactors of the university, but the school wasn't named after them until 1972.
Harry sounds like a great guy. He's a combination of me (bookish, prefers characters to real people) and you (gentlemanly, collects rare books). I'm going to show this post to my dad, as he might be interested in this bit of Harvard history!
Post a Comment