Heroes of the Night: Titanic and Social Affairs in 1912
Social class segregation was the norm in nearly all aspects of American society in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and at the top of the ladder were the social rich, who were defined by their wealth, family ties, and manners. Today, we might keep up with the lives of our favorite actors or singers, but in the decades before the turn of the 20th century, the social rich were the celebrities. Beyond the social rich, prominent businessmen, politicians, and industrialists were also at the top of the social hierarchy.
J. P. Morgan, Ben Guggenheim, John Jacob Astor IV, John D. Rockefeller — you’ve probably heard all of these names at some point. They were among the most prominent members of the American social elite during the Gilded Age, and there were many more whose names may not be as familiar, several of whom travelled aboard the Titanic: Margaret Brown, a millionaire, philanthropist, and women’s rights activist; Macy’s department store owner Isidor Straus and his wife Ida; millionaire streetcar magnate George Widener; John Thayer, the VP of Pennsylvania Railroad; and President Taft’s military aid, Major Archibald Butt. Their lives were chronicled in the pages of local and national newspapers.
By the turn of the century, attention began to shift to a new breed of celebrity consisting of those who entertained others for a living, such as musicians and artists, though the social rich still commanded a significant amount of attention. New celebrities included actresses Mary Pickford and Dorothy Gibson (an actual Titanic survivor).
From the upper-class Edwardian perspective, wealth, intellect, and character were all interconnected. If a person were wealthy, he was also assumed to be intelligent and to possess admirable character qualities. The flip side of that is that people belonging to the lower classes were assumed to be less intelligent and to possess lower morals and other faulty character qualities.
Socialists and labor activists of the time saw the Titanic’s sinking as an example of the oppression that the working classes suffered at the hands of the wealthy and powerful. The activists were among the first to make the case for Third Class heroism on the Titanic. They reversed the myth of First Class heroism by claiming that those in Third Class had been the heroes. They pointed to statistics for evidence, observing that 63 percent of first-class passengers survived, while only 25 percent of third-class passengers survived.
