Spreading the News
Finnegan claims, "We need to understand, not only where images come from, but also what they are made to do in the contexts in which we discover them" (204). Before the disaster, the Titanic postcards that circulated were largely to advertise the ship as the largest in the world, including text to reference her size and cost. The images depicted on these cards was frequently the Olympic, the Titanic's sister ship. However, by slightly altering the images and the captions, the postcard publishers were able to repurpose Olympic photographs and postcards for Titanic's use, a form of reproduction.
When the Titanic sank, many of these advertisement postcards were recalled and subsequently reissued with different text to memorialize the event and the lives that were lost. For the most part, these postcards detailed facts about the ship, the date of the tragedy, and the number of lives lost. More so than postcards created to memorialize the Titanic, these cards focused on facts and figures. Because these were some of the earliest cards to be released post-disaster, it is likely that they were intended to spread the news about the event in addition to memorializing. They were also likely to be cheaper and faster to produce.
An early postcard advertising the grandeur of the Titanic, repurposed from a postcard of the Olympic. A number of references to the Olympic remain on the card. (Piazza)
Very early post-sinking postcard of the Titanic but as was frequently done, it is actually the Olympic. This is the rarest of two versions stating "Titanic S.S." as opposed to "S.S. Titanic." ("Postcards")
A Tuck's Oilette card that was reissued after the disaster. The text at the bottom includes the date of the sinking and the lives lost as well as other stats about the ship's size and cost. (Piazza)
An early postcard advertising the grandeur of the Titanic, repurposed from a postcard of the Olympic. A number of references to the Olympic remain on the card. (Piazza)