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First Lady Helen Taft sent letters to women across the county to begin a fundraising campaign for a memorial. Over $43,000 was raised by January 1914
WASHINGTON — Did you know there is a Titanic memorial statue in Washington D.C.?
The Royal Mail Ship (RMS) Titanic sank on April 15, 1912, claiming the lives of over 1,500 people, including friends and advisors to President William Howard Taft. Of those friends, was military advisor, Major Archibald Butt, and his close friend Francis Millet. Millet partially helped design plans for the National Mall.
Distraught over the lost lives, First Lady Helen Taft sent letters to women across the county to begin a fundraising campaign for a memorial. Over $43,000 was raised by January 1914 and the remaining costs were paid for by the U.S. Government.
That year, eight sculptors submitted entries into a competition, but the winning design was awarded to Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney. The statue was completed in 1918 and was displayed in a New York City art gallery for over a decade before a dedication that took place on May 26, 1931.
The original location of the memorial was near the banks of the Potomac, where the Kennedy Center sits today. The memorial moved to its present location in 1968 to a public park, near the intersection of 4th and P Streets Southwest.
The 12-foot tall, 8-foot-wide statue depicts a barely clothed man, with his arms outstretched, representing the sacrifice the men aboard the Titanic gave to save the lives of women and children.
The memorial was added to the list of the National Register of Historic Places on October 12th, 2007.
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