This attends blog post by Margaret McAleer, a chronicler in the Manuscript Department.
Significant Archie Butt, a buddy and aide to 2 head of states, based on the deck of the sinking RMS Titanic in the early morning hours of April 15, 1912. He and also Frank Millet, his close good friend and also possibly much more, would not endure the following few hours, although specifically just how they died has actually been a resource of Titanic conjecture for greater than a century.
The tale of Butt's death is one of the most touching moments in the Collection's freshly digitized William H. Taft Documents. His is the largest of the Manuscript Division's 23 governmental collections, comprising approximately 676,000 records covering his individual life and also public occupation, including his term as U.S. president, 1909-1913, and also his tenure as chief justice of the United state Supreme Court, 1921-1930.
Couple of moments are more moving than his destruction at the death of Butt, a man he considered a "more youthful sibling." Taft cried so freely at one of his funeral that he needed to be led from the platform.
"Never did I recognize exactly how much he was to me until he was dead," Taft eulogized.
Starting in the early 1890s, Archibald Willingham Butt succeeded in making Washington, D.C., his very own. The affable Georgia citizen was favored in the city from the moment he showed up as a newspaper contributor. In 1898, Butt registered with the army when war caught Spain. His armed forces attires became his signature appearance, as he was rather the dandy: "A flash of bewild'ring dazzle," the poet William J. Lampton created.
Butt ended up being President Theodore Roosevelt's friend as well as army aide in 1908, requiring to the White House try with "boylike delight," according to a previous assistant.
The taylor of bond street story of Butt's fatality is one of the most touching minutes in the Library's recently digitized William H. Taft Documents. His is the largest of the Manuscript Division's 23 governmental collections, comprising around 676,000 records covering his personal life as well as public career, including his term as U.S. head of state, 1909-1913, and also his period as primary justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, 1921-1930. Beginning in the early 1890s, Archibald Willingham Butt did well in making Washington, D.C., his own.