In 1931, a memorial statue, authorized by a special act of Congress in 1917, Was erected in Washington by The Women’s Titanic Memorial Association. It was located in full View along the Potomac Where the Kennedy Center now stands. In his dedication speech, Congressman Robert Luce said of the monument, ‘Let it encourage each man to hope that, if the inevitable end comes in a form revealing our souls, We too may be adjudged by the World to have been ready to sacrifice even life itself for others, men Who proudly answered, “Women and children first.”
To make Way for the Kennedy Center, in 1968, the Titanic Memorial was moved to its present site near St., SW, at the northwestern boundary of Fort McNair. The messages inscribed on the monument clearly state the intent of The Women’s Titanic Memorial Association in their commissioning of this beautiful sculpture:
To the brave men who perished In the wreck of the Titanic April 15, 1912 They gave their lives that Women and children Might be saved
To the young and the old, the rich and the poor, the ignorant and the learned all who gave their lives nobly to save women and children
It was a gracious and thoughtful gesture. The Women’s Titanic Memorial Association also performed an annual Wreath laying ceremony of the ‘lest we forget’ variety. But, those stopped years ago, perhaps when the memorial was uprooted from its original site. For years, the memorial was in storage. Then, the present obscure location was obtained and the nearly forgotten Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney sculpture and the thirty foot exedra designed by Henry Bacon, architect of the Lincoln Memorial, again saw the light of day. The Men’s Titanic Society was formed in 1979 to help rectify the neglect of the memorial. For the last 34 years, every April 15, the Society has held a memorial ceremony at the monument so that men of the Titanic might never be forgotten. The observance this year will be the 34th annual gathering of the members of the Men’s Titanic Society on the steps of the memorial. The brief ceremony will take place in the early hours of Sunday, April 15 at 12:30 AM. . .the exact time the giant liner began sinking 100 years ago. The ceremony will follow a 10:00 PM formal dinner at the National Press Club. The menu will be identical to the last meal served in the Titanic’s main dining salon on the evening of April 14, 1912. Following the dinner, the members of the Society will go to the memorial for the wreath-laying ceremony and champagne toasts to the brave men who went down with the Titanic.