Souvenir in Affectionate Remembrance of the…S. S. “Titanic.”

This illustrated tissue paper souvenir honors the “Captain, Mates, Crew, & Passengers who lost their lives by the foundering of the world’s largest liner, S. S. ‘Titanic’”, and is illustrated with an image of the ship “Whilst on Her Maiden Voyage from Southampton to New York.” A brief message from the King and Queen is printed next to “The Last Hymn.” 

London printer and “swag” vendor Sarah Burgess, known affectionately among the city’s street sellers as “Auntie,” began her business in the late 1800s, and by the 1930s her shop had become “the recognised centre for the street traders and the costers of London to buy their wares” (Barker). A London directory of 1908 describes her as a “manufacturer of paper switches, cut tissues, lace paper and shelf trimmings & confetti, and stationer, wholesale and export” (Crawford).

REFERENCES: Barker, Dudely. “This is Where London’s Costers Buy the Things They Sell,” Evening Standard (London) 1 August 1938, p. 5; Crawford, Elizabeth. “Ephemera: Mrs Sarah Burgess, Printer,” Woman and Her Sphere online.