Titanic Perfumes


(YouTube link)

Bill Sauder talks about examining relics from the Titanic, in this clip from a NatGeo special. The perfumes he is talking about belonged to Adolphe Saalfeld, who was bringing samples to the United States in hopes he could market them here. Saalfeld survived the disaster and died in 1926. You can see the perfume case in an exhibit of Titanic relics. -via reddit

The tears are too much. If Mr Sauder was genuinely upset by the personal tragedy of Titanic, he wouldn't be rooting around through passengers' personal possessions to find things to peddle for Titanic Inc. Saalfield might have survived, but other did not.

Titanic is both a grave and a marine archaeological site. It should be conserved, recorded, and explored with care. Titanic Inc. is a business, and it exhibits objects taken from the wreck for profit with little or no care for their context or long-term preservation.

The reasons for its sole authority over the wreckage are tenuous, and the company's primary goals (to recover "desirable objects" and generate as much media attention as possible) remain decidedly non-archaeological. The US Government recently issued an injunction to prevent the company from cutting into the ship to retrieve a supposed 'diamond shipment'.

We can but hope the Supreme Court and UNESCO (which recently awarded Titanic special status) can work together to ensure a future for the wreck that is free of commercial exploitation.
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I got to see the perfume case at the Titanic exhibit when it came through my town a few years ago. They had holes in the Lucite case so you could put your nose up to it & take a sniff - you could definitely still smell the perfume quite strongly after all those years underwater! It really was a moving and personal experience that somehow brought the entire tragedy home for me. Incredible!
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My husband and children sat down to watch this program on Sunday. As usual there was a lot of chatter, distraction, in and out of attentions. But when his testimony of the perfumes came on everyone was still, even the 2 and 4 year old. This man's emotion was so genuine, we all nearly teared up.
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