A postcard written aboard the Titanic and sent on April 10, 1912 by Tom Franklin to his sister Grace Franklin. Mr. Franklin was a First Class Passenger who did not survive. (Probst)
The message from Mr. Franklin reads: "Titanic April 10th, 1912 We have just left Cherbourg. Plenty of wind and very cold. This is a lovely boat. Just like a town. I spent about an hour in the gym this afternoon. Love to all. Tom" (Probst)
This postcard is dated November 15. Although the year is not listed is does give reference the Lusitania prior to being sunk on May 15, 1915. This dates the card from 1912 - 1914. ("Postcards")
A postcard written aboard the Titanic and sent on April 10, 1912 by Tom Franklin to his sister Grace Franklin. Mr. Franklin was a First Class Passenger who did not survive. (Probst)
Writing Home
As Daniel Piazza states, “The brief life and tragic end of the Royal Mail Ship Titanic coincided with the first “golden age” of picture postcards, which lasted from 1907 to 1915, and postcards form an important part of the ship’s legacy.” The Titanic underwrote expenses by carrying mail, and accordingly, passengers enjoyed onboard postal service (Smithsonian National Postal Museum). During this time, many people relied on mail as a form of communication, but postcards in particular were widely used. Milne writes that the postcard was a system of communication that was available to a wide section of the public (98). Milne also suggests that the postcard simultaneously allowed writers to write less and encouraged them to write more (109). Depending on the social context, then, a writer might let the picture stand in for most of his words or might end up writing when he would not have otherwise because he wants to share the pictures of his environment. Such seems to be the case for those sending postcards to loved ones onboard the Titanic. Passengers could purchase Titanic postcards dockside or in the barber shop onboard the ship (Smithsonian National Postal Museum). The availability of the postcards might encourage them to write and share pictures of the ship when they might not have otherwise.
The messages written on pre-sinking postcards are often mundane, including tales of the passenger’s day, writing about the boat, and asking about those back home. Even so, the mail onboard was considered both important and valuable. According to the Smithsonian National Postal Museum, when the ship began to sink, Titanic’s mail crew “struggled heroically to save what they could of the 3,364 mailbags while water surged into the mailroom. The North Atlantic claimed the bags and the lives of all the clerks.” As a result, pre-sinking postcards that have been postally used are very rare. After the Titanic sank, many people collected the memorial postcards. Because these items are considered collectible, relatively few are postally used. Those that do have writing, are less valuable that those without (Judnick and Scott). The post-disaster cards that are written on sometimes refer to the tragedy, but others do not. Seeing the ways in which these postcards were used—or not—helps to provide some insights into the social and cultural contexts of mail in the early 1900s.