This is what I call satisfying provenance (Titanic-related)

A few years back I bought a collection of photographs of the Ostby family. The Ostbys were wealthy jewelers who lived in Providence, Rhode Island. Helen and her father Engelhart travelled on the Titanic's maiden and only voyage. Helen survived the sinking but her father didn't. 

More recently, I found the book "Titanic and Other Ships" by Titanic officer Commander Lightoller. To my amazement it had belonged to Helen. 

The provenance could not be more cast iron and satisfying. Helen has inscribed the book with her name, the place and the date (Helen Ostby, Bruxelles, January 1935). The Mariners' Museum Library at the Christopher Newport University holds a letter that Helen wrote to a friend shortly after the sinking. The signature matches that in the book. In their "Guide to the letter" the Museum Library states that Helen was living in Brussels during the 1930s. On top of all that, the book was first published in January 1935 and bears a sticker from the WH Smith English bookshop in Brussels. It seems Helen couldn't wait to get her hands on the book - for pretty obvious reasons.

Here is a photo of Helen

......here is the inscription in the book with the bookshop sticker

....and here are the publication details

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Permalink Reply by Eric Keith Longo on October 31, 2025 at 4:07am

After looking more closely I don't see any indications of leaf (some slight linear disturbances every 3" or so), it looks like paint, and looking into the frame this photo appears smaller than the opening (clipped top and bottom) so likely not original.

Permalink Reply by a pug called eva on October 31, 2025 at 5:26am

Thank you Eric and JK re the frame. It is certainly not original and that is why I got the photo out of it as soon as I could. I assume a family member put certain photographs into frames at a much later date. The framing of these is truly awful. Here is the only image of the back of the "Helen frame" that I can get my hands on easily. The note on the back suggests that one of Helen's nephews or nieces put in in the frame:

...and to show the awfulness of the framing, here is Helen's father as he was in his frame:

Permalink Reply by JK on October 31, 2025 at 9:28am

Those frames certainly are unfortunate.  😕

Still, the notations on the back may have helped keep them from being trashed at some point.  

For my own sanity I'd tell myself that the trimming was done many decades ago for another frame.  

I wonder if there were other Titanic mementos in that family that were lost when things were being dispersed.  She might well have had things that were with her during the voyage that were not as well documented.  

As Eric said, that is a far better image than those on the linked ET site.  It's a real discovery that thankfully has found a home with someone who recognizes it's importance.

Permalink Reply by Eric Keith Longo on October 31, 2025 at 4:02am

The slight drift of the left eye outward nails the ID. Unpublished photographs of survivors can garner good interest (and $). I would watermark the image now. It will be found and taken. You might lease the image if anyone is still writing Titanic passenger books as rabidly as in the past. I've done very well leasing images, Nothing like getting paid and keeping the original.This appears the earliest photo around and I haven't seen it before. Looking at the 1915 photo at the link I gave shows this. And the quality - yours is better than anything online it seems. Those are mostly over contrasted copies of period newspaper images.

Permalink Reply by a pug called eva on October 31, 2025 at 5:35am

Thank you for the tip re watermarking Eric. I upload lots of my C19 photographs to a Facebook site and never watermark them. I usually just try to make sure that the resolution wouldn't be high enough to print commercially. I know I should probably be more careful but life is short and thus far I haven't spotted any images being used elsewhere, except for one that was uploaded to an ancestry site.  I have also heard that watermarks can be removed by people who know how to do such things. 

Permalink Reply by Eric Keith Longo on October 31, 2025 at 5:38am

Anytime, They can be, yes, and technically you may not even need it, but so many of my images have been swiped I lost count...I usually embed something in the image or add/remove a tiny detail.

Permalink Reply by Eric Keith Longo on October 31, 2025 at 9:51am

It appears Helen was never formally interviewed, but she wrote a detailed six-page letter on May 13, 1912, to Hope Chapin, whom she had befriended aboard the rescue ship, Carpathia. Among other details, the letter confirmed Helen's father's body was recovered. Most details of her experiences stem from this letter, which is housed in The Mariners' Museum Library (Catalog Number MS0475). Like dozens of other survivors, she corresponded with Walter Lord later in life as he prepared to write A Night to Remember.

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