Harry Widener
Harry Elkins Widener (born January 3, 1885 in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , USA , † April 15, 1912 in the North Atlantic ) was an American book collector and member of one of the wealthiest and most influential families in Philadelphia. After his death on the RMS Titanic , the Widener Library was named after him in his memory.
Life
Harry Widener was born in Philadelphia in 1885 as the first child of George Widener (1861–1912) and his wife Eleanor, b. Elkins (1862–1937) born. His father was one of Philadelphia's wealthiest heirs, having inherited his father's property, Peter Widener . George Widener had also made a name for himself as president of the Philadelphia Traction Company and director of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts . Harry Widener grew up in Elkins Park , Pennsylvania. The Wideners were among the most prominent families in Philadelphia at the time and had been collecting books, drawings , silver , porcelain and other things for generations .
Harry Widener attended Hill School private school in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, from which he graduated in 1903. He then went to Harvard , where he graduated in 1907. He made a name for himself primarily as a collector of books , manuscripts and drawings, as he had a great interest in art and literature . His collection included a letter by William Shakespeare and an original edition of the Gutenberg Bible . He also owned works by Charles Dickens , Robert Louis Stevenson , George Cruikshank , William Makepeace Thackeray , Charlotte Brontë and William Blake . He was a member of the Grolier Club and the Bibliophile Society and was in close contact with book collectors Abraham Simon Wolf Rosenbach from Philadelphia and Luther Livingston from New York .
In the spring of 1912 Widener traveled to England to buy books there. Among the books he bought was a copy of Francis Bacon's essayes: Religious Meditations. Places of Perswasion and Disswasion from 1597. On April 10, 1912, he went in Southampton with his parents George and Eleanor as a passenger on board the RMS Titanic to return to the USA. The Titanic was the largest ship in the world until then and set sail for New York on her maiden voyage . The family occupied the neighboring cabins B-80 and B-82. The group was accompanied by George Widener's servant Edwin Keeping and Eleanor Widener's East Prussian maid Amalie Gieger. On the evening of April 14th, Widener's parents held a dinner party in honor of Captain Edward Smith in the ship's à la carte restaurant , which Harry Widener also attended.
After the collision with the iceberg , Widener and his father George took the mother to lifeboat No. 4 on the starboard side . There he met the automobile manufacturer William E. Carter , whose family got into the same boat. To Carter, he said, "I think I'll stick with this big ship, Billy, and take the chance." Harry Widener and his father were killed in the sinking. Their bodies were never found. After his death, his mother donated $ 200,000 to a building on Harvard University that would house her son's book collection. From this the Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library developed , which was opened on June 24, 1915. The library continues to function today. The collection, which Widener has compiled personally, amounts to around 3300 copies, which are kept in the Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Room of the Widener Library.
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| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Widener, Harry |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Widener, Harry Elkins (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American student and book collector |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 3, 1885 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , USA |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 15, 1912 |
| Place of death | North Atlantic |