1897 passenger list from MAJESTIC

passenger list

A first-class passenger list for the RMS MAJESTIC’s journey of July 21, 1897 from Liverpool to New York. The captain, Edward J. Smith, and the ship’s surgeon, Dr. William Francis Norman O'Loughlin, both subsequently served and died on the TITANIC’s maiden voyage. Other notable passengers included George H. Reid, then Premier of New South Wales and later the fourth Prime Minister of Australia, two members of Parliament in the UK, Albert Brassey and Mark Oldroyd, and several wealthy and prominent members of Gilded Age society, including brothers Arthur S. Burden and William Proudfit Burden, noted attorney Elbridge T. Gerry and his family, insurance executive Sydney Dillon Ripley, Michael P. Grace of W.R. Grace & Co accompanied by three of his daughters, British businessman Oswald Sanderson, American businessman and politician J. Hampden Robb, Henry T. Sloane of furniture company W&J Sloane, and the wife and children of Joy Sterling Morton of Morton Salt. Also aboard were two distinguished medical professionals, Dr. J. Clifton Edgar, who was an important gynecologist and obstetrician, and Dr. J. Leon Williams, a dentist who invented new denture technology and discovered the significance of dental plaque. Another passenger was the noted evangelist preacher Rev. G. Campbell Morgan. The front cover bears a large white star over a drawing in which a trident with a dolphin is intertwined with a winged staff that has two snakes wrapped around it. These are references to Poseidon, the Greek god of the sea, and Hermes, the messenger of the Greek gods, whose caduceus is considered a symbol of commerce. The text says White Star Line/Royal and United States Mail Steamers/Ismay Imrie & Co/London and Liverpool/Maitland Kersey/New York. The rear cover includes a map and a blank log chart where passengers could note details of their journey.