ISIDOR AND IDA STRAUS SCRAPBOOK WITH ALS FROM IDA STRAUS

New York, 1912-1915. Hardcover. A scrapbook and associated ephemera relating to the lives and deaths of Isidor (February 6, 1845-April 15, 1912) and Ida (February 6, 1849-April 15, 1912) Straus, who died aboard the Titanic, including an autograph letter signed by Ida Straus to her granddaughter Beatrice.




Isidor was, with his brother Nathan, co-owner of Macy's department store and a U.S. Congressman; both he and his wife were prominent and wealthy members of New York City's Jewish community and philanthropists particularly interested in questions of education. The Strauses took passage aboard the Titanic to travel back to New York following a winter spent largely in southern France, and both died when the ship struck an iceberg on April 15, 1912. Famously, Ida was offered a seat in one of the lifeboats, but refused to be separated from her husband. Their deaths, and particularly Ida's love of and loyalty to her husband, became a subject of numerous newspaper pieces, poems, and songs in the months that followed the Titanic disaster, and the story continues to be regularly depicted in film and other media more than one hundred years later.




The scrapbook is debossed with the phrase "News Clippings," the name of Beatrice N. Straus, and the year 1912. It contains the following:




An autograph letter signed by Ida Straus to her granddaughter, Beatrice, dated March 18, 1912, and written from a hotel in Menton, France. In full, the letter reads:


"March 18th, 1912 Monday morning


My dear Beatrice,


This morning we received the American Hebrew of March 1st, and the enclosed story, which it contained is so pretty, that I thought you and Jack might care to read it; it is short enough not to take your time from lessons or anything else you may want to do.


We are all packed, in fact all our trunks have already gone, and we are ready to leave for Cannes, where Aunt Vivy [Ida and Isidor's daughter, Vivian Straus (1886-1967)] is stopping, but must wait until after lunch because we have invited a lady to share that meal with us, who telephoned she was going to come all the way from Monte Carlo, notwithstanding that it is raining hard all morning.


Papa and Mama will remember her name as we wrote having met her at a dinner last week. It is Mrs. Gelberman[?], and she is known hereabout, as the lady with the jewels, because she has such magnificent ones. She formerly lived in America and is a very interesting woman, and that is the [?] reason papa invited her.


Aunt Vivy and Uncle Herby with the babies arrived on Saturday morning, and they all look very well. Baby Stuarthas improved very much, he is so much livelier than he was before. We are going to remain with them until Friday morning, and then [?] to Paris. We will soon be home again, as we have taken passage on the steamship Titanic for April 10th. I hope your wrist is all right again, and with lots of love and kisses to you, Jack, and Bobby, whose French letters I enjoyed very much, and regards to mademoiselle, am


Devotedly yours


Grandma


[In another hand, presumably that of Isidor Straus] "Grandpa sends love to all"




A letter from Jewish educator Julia Richman (1855-1912), the first female district superintendent of schools for New York City. Richman worked closely with Isidor and Ida Straus on questions of education, and spoke at two memorial services for them on May 11 and 12, 1912. The letter, on Richman's personal stationery, reads:




"333 Central Park W.


April 27, 1912


My poor, dear friend,


Let this note convey to you what a warm hand pressure and moist eyes would have told you had I been able to meet you at any time since one awful calamity overtook a civilized world.


No words can do more to give the assurance of loving sympathy, and of partnership in the loss and in the great grief. The whole world shares in this, but you must believe that I, so blessedly privileged in being admitted to a close friendship and to the intimacy of your beautiful family life, must share to a larger degree.


My own heart aches with the keenness of loss but it also thrills with the joy of recognition of the fact that their lives were so ideally beautiful, that an ordinary close would not have been as fitting, as this sanctified, eternal seal upon so sublime a union. Thank God that they left to all humanity not only high ideals of living, but the highest most exalted attitude towards death. Thank God, too, that neither was left to face life without the other.


Extend my warmest sympathy to your wife. Let some of the friendship and affection which bound me to your sainted parents keep me in touch with their children.


Yours in grief and sympathy,


Julia Richman"




An eight-page holograph copy of Julia Richman's speech from the May 12 memorial for Isidor and Ida Straus. The speech consists largely of Richman's reflections on Ida's devotion to Isidor and her children, and is signed by Richman on the final page.




Three programs from memorial services held honoring the Strauses: a service arranged by the Board of Directors of the Educational Alliance on May 11, 1912, a service held at Carnegie Hall on May 12, 1912, and the Straus Park Memorial dedication ceremony on April 15, 1915.




News clippings pasted into the scrapbook, totalling 36 pages of clippings with additional blank pages at the rear of the volume, come from articles published immediately after the Titanic sank on April 15, 1912, through the 1915 dedication of the Straus Memorial at the recently renamed Straus Park, one block from the Straus's home on the Upper West Side. The publications from which the clippings are extracted are generally not named, but a significant portion appear to be extracted from Jewish publications. Most clippings, but not all, relate specifically to the Strauses.




One page bearing pressed flowers, presumably from a funeral or memorial bouquet.




Additional news clippings, letters, and other ephemera associated with the album but not affixed to it. The only item contemporaneous to the sinking of the Titanic is a large memorial section of the New York Sunday American, dated April 28, 1912, dedicated to the loss of the Titanic. The remainder are later in date (predominantly from the 1970s and 1980s) and include articles about the discovery of the Titanic wreck; handwritten and typed notes about Straus family history; a later copy of a 1904 photograph of the Straus family; and a photocopy, a scan, and typed transcription of a letter apparently sent by Ida Straus to a Mrs. Burbridge, written from the Titanic before it sailed; and a variety of other ephemera, such as event programs. Several personal letters are included, mostly between descendants of the Strauses and individuals who are interested in the Titanic.




Also included is an original memorial pin bearing Isidor Straus's name and photograph, along with the text "We mourn our loss."




Provenance: This collection comes by descent through the family of Jesse Straus; it has never before been offered for sale. 1379037. Special Collections.