Friday, April 13, 2012

Vintage Lorain Headlines: The Titanic Disaster


The RMS Titanic struck an iceberg one hundred years ago tomorrow, and I thought it would be interesting to see how the disaster played out in the pages of a Lorain newspaper. Below are the front pages of The Lorain Daily News from April 15, 16 and 17, 1912.

As you can see from the April 15 page, originally it was reported that the damaged ship was 'crawling' to Halifax, Nova Scotia but still afloat, and that the passengers had been rescued. By the time of the April 16 edition, however, the truth was finally being reported.

Click on each page for a readable version.




Also on these front pages, a variety of interesting Lorain topics can be found: legislation to pave Broadway, a brouhaha caused by mail carriers being assigned new routes, and April snow in the forecast!

7 comments:

Lisa said...

I had to laugh at the label on the first picture! I wonder if it was obvious in the original paper that it had been photochopped. Could you imagine if we had to list what we've done to our pictures?

Was the newspaper being fed the information they reported at first or were they making it up?

Speaking of other stories on the front pages, I had to go read all about "Jerry Hilt, well known Lorainite" (front page 1). Well known?! He only lived here 8 years! When I mapped the address of the sanitarium where he died, I came up with the 32nd Street side of the Lowell Elementary School property.

And the house of ill fame (front page 2) is now Kennedy Plaza. The "visitor" referenced in the article was arrested at 17th & Broadway.

Okay. I'm done now. :-D

Drew Penfield said...

Lisa, the sanitarium in question was the former mansion of A.J. Moxham, president of the steel company. It was later turned into the sanitarium, and eventually it was torn down and the school built on the property. Here's a photo of it: http://www.lakeshorerailmaps.com/lse/lsry/images/moxham%20house.jpg

Anonymous said...

Dan,
I always look forward to your blog! Another fascinating trip back in time. Thanks again for the Titianic review. I ,over looking at the old from pages.

Tony

Anonymous said...

The author of the last book I read on the Titanic had access to Ismay's diary and some under water photos showing the broken up hull. The diary comments that the hull "panted" at speed (the sides of the ship could be seen moving). As she was sinking the hull broke into two otherwise it is conjectured that she would have lasted until daybreak and more people could have been saved.

Loraine Ritchey said...

What a gorgeous home.... and gone.... I am depressed this morning as Lorain negates her own maritime past
http://thatwoman.wordpress.com/2012/04/15/titanic-tale-the-shame-of-lorains-forgotten-maritime-history/

Lisa said...

I highly recommend that you check out these recent photos of Titanic:
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2012/04/titanic/titanic-photography
Noodle around a bit, make sure to check out the full ship magnifier shots and watch for the 'Titanic then & now' link to show up on the right sidebar. Absolutely incredible.

Lisa said...

@ Drew
Thank you very much for sharing that photo. That house took my breath away. They sure don't build 'em like that anymore!