Titanic Discovery Digital Collection
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Titanic is a ship that lives in our collective memory as a symbol of a gilded era that ended abruptly and tragically in the North Atlantic Ocean in the early 20th century. This digital collection tells part of the story of her discovery in 1985. It is primarily comprised of logbooks, scientific data, and the thousands of letters from people around the world expressing their joy and enthusiasm when Titanic was found.
HMS Titanic departed Southampton, England on April 10th, 1912 for her maiden voyage. As she made her way to her intended destination of New York, she struck an iceberg late on April 14th. Of the 2,200 passengers and crew, over 1,500 were lost when the ‘nearly unsinkable’ vessel sank at about 2:30 am on April 15th. Though sought after for decades, Titanic was not found quickly or easily. It was the work of many people over many years, and it also required the most sophisticated technology available at the time.
As the 40th anniversary of the discovery approaches, we want to share these materials more widely so that everyone can better understand this discovery and what happened in the days and weeks afterwards. Just as the sinking altered the world, ending many lives and some even say ending an era, so too her finding also dramatically changed lives, institutions, our understanding of what we can do in the ocean for science and society.
Please see related materials listed below:
- The September-October 1985 WHOI Newsletter v.26 n.9, September-October 1985 contains articles on the discovery of the Titanic: https://hdl.handle.net/1912/9959
- Oceanus magazine Volume 28 Number 4, Winter 1985/1986: https://archive.org/details/oceanusv2804wood
- Oceanus magazine Volume 29 Number 3, Fall 1986/1986: https://archive.org/details/oceanusv2903wood
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Recent Submissions
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TextCorrespondence: Correspondence between Dr. Robert Ballard (WHOI - Senior Scientist Head, Deep Submergence Laboratory) and C. Lowell Avery(Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2024-05-17)
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TextCorrespondence: Correspondence between Dr. Robert Ballard (WHOI - Senior Scientist Head, Deep Submergence Laboratory) and Robert Schmid (Flight Director - Minnesota Finnish American Historical Society)(Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2024-05-17)
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TextCorrespondence: Letter from Ronald Raposa to Dr. Robert Ballard (WHOI - Senior Scientist Head, Deep Submergence Laboratory)(Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2024-05-17)
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TextCorrespondence: Correspondence between Dr. Robert Ballard (WHOI - Senior Scientist Head, Deep Submergence Laboratory) and Jean R. Fitzgerald(Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2024-05-17)
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TextCorrespondence: Correspondence between Dr. Robert Ballard (WHOI - Senior Scientist Head, Deep Submergence Laboratory) and Mrs. Trannie B. Brown(Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2024-05-17)
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TextCorrespondence: Handwritten letter from Lawrence P. Middleton to Dr. Robert Ballard (WHOI - Senior Scientist Head, Deep Submergence Laboratory)(Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2024-05-17)
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TextCorrespondence: Handwritten letter from Brian Markey to Dr. Robert Ballard (WHOI - Senior Scientist Head, Deep Submergence Laboratory)(Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2024-05-17)
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TextCorrespondence: Correspondence between Dr. Robert Ballard (WHOI - Senior Scientist Head, Deep Submergence Laboratory) and Vaclav Pertl(Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2024-05-17)
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TextCorrespondence: Telex from Maureen Wiehl to Dr. Robert Ballard (WHOI - Senior Scientist Head, Deep Submergence Laboratory)(Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2024-05-17)
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TextCorrespondence: Handwritten letter from Mr. D. J. Woolley (TITANIC Salvage Company) to Dr. Robert Ballard (WHOI - Senior Scientist Head, Deep Submergence Laboratory)(Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2024-05-17)
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TextCorrespondence: Correspondence between Dr. Robert Ballard (WHOI - Senior Scientist Head, Deep Submergence Laboratory) and Dr. lan M. Young(Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2024-05-17)
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TextCorrespondence: Handwritten letter from unknown source to Dr. Robert Ballard (WHOI - Senior Scientist Head, Deep Submergence Laboratory)(Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2024-05-17)
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TextCorrespondence: Photocopies of pages from book titled “Along the South Downs” by David Harrison and hand drawing of Old Harbour Old Shoreham Sussex England(Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2024-05-17)
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TextCorrespondence: Handwritten letter from Chuck West to Dr. Robert Ballard (WHOI - Senior Scientist Head, Deep Submergence Laboratory)(Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2024-05-17)
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TextCorrespondence: Letter from Leslie Harrison to Dr. Robert Ballard (WHOI - Senior Scientist Head, Deep Submergence Laboratory)(Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2024-05-17)
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TextCorrespondence: Handwritten letter from Mrs. H. L. Reddish to Dr. Robert Ballard (WHOI - Senior Scientist Head, Deep Submergence Laboratory)(Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2024-05-17)
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TextCorrespondence: Correspondence between Dr. Robert Ballard (WHOI - Senior Scientist Head, Deep Submergence Laboratory) and Erich Kloss(Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2024-05-17)
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TextCorrespondence: Correspondence between Dr. Robert Ballard (WHOI - Senior Scientist Head, Deep Submergence Laboratory) and Ms. Margaret Hines(Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2024-05-17)
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TextCorrespondence: Correspondence between Dr. Robert Ballard (WHOI - Senior Scientist Head, Deep Submergence Laboratory) and Matthew Brown(Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2024-05-17)