Lot Essay
Miss Eleanor Ileen Johnson (later Schuman) boarded the Titanic at Southampton on Wednesday, April 10th, 1912. She was 19 months old at the time and traveled on a third class ticket with her mother, Mrs. Elisabeth Vilhelmina Johnson, and brother, Master Harold Theodor Johnson, who was four. It is not clear why her father was not traveling with the family. It is believed that the Johnson family was rescued in lifeboat 15, one of the last boats to be launched. These photographs were likely taken by an enterprising photographer in Southampton, prior to departure, as neither White Star Line nor R.M.S. Titanic had on-board or souvenir photographers. The inscriptions are later, and the signature appears to match other documents signed by Eleanor Schuman. These images were purchased by the current owner at an estate sale of a family who knew Mrs. Schuman as an adult.