Mrs George Achilles Harder (Dorothy Annan) was born in New York City on 4 July 1890.
She was the daughter of Eduard Annan, Jr (1867-1893) and Lizzie Maud Earle (1868-1891), both natives of New York.
Following the death of both her parents at a young age, Dorothy was raised by her paternal aunt Mrs Thomas Richardson (née Charlotte S. Annan, 1852-1923), appearing with her on the 1900 and 1910 censuses living in Manhattan, her address being 186 Fifth Avenue on the latter record.
Dorothy was married in New York to George Achilles Harder (b. 1886), a realtor, on 8 January 1912. Following a three-month-long honeymoon in Europe, the couple boarded the Titanic at Cherbourg as first class passengers. They occupied cabin E-50 (ticket number 11765, which cost £55, 8s, 10d).
On the night of the sinking the couple appear to have been in their cabin at the time of the collision. Noting the thud as nothing that should otherwise perturb them, Mr Harder went to investigate anyway, following which he returned to his cabin to fetch his wife and the both headed topside.
The couple were rescued in lifeboat 5. According to George's grandson, Mr and Mrs Harder saved three things from the Titanic (apparently taken from the cabin and still owned by the family today): Mrs Harder's fur coat, a bottle of brandy, and a button hook for Mrs Harder's shoes.
Following their rescue, the couple were the subjects of a well-known photo taken on the Carpathia by Miss Bernice Palmer. The photograph shows them in discussion with another passenger (believed to be Sallie Beckwith).
The Harders were frequently asked to lecture about the Titanic disaster but they refused. Like so many other men who escaped, George Harder found the stigma of surviving the Titanic disaster difficult to live down.
Dorothy and her husband made their home in Manhattan and went on two have two daughters: Dorothy V (1913-1973, later Mrs Barclay Kountze Douglas) and Jean (1915-1991, later Mrs Clendenin James Ryan).
In 1916 she and her husband visited Asia, including China and Japan, returning home from Hong Kong aboard the Empress of Asia in December 1916. At that time their address was 43, 5th Avenue, Manhattan and Dorothy's passport, obtained that year, described her as standing at 5' 2", with blue-grey eyes, light-blonde hair, an oval face with a prominent chin and a high forehead.
Dorothy would live at 43, 5th Avenue in Manhattan for the rest of her life. Her last years were plagued with kidney complaints and she died at her New York apartment, 510 Park Avenue, on 1 December 1926 aged 36. She was later interred in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.
© Michael A. Findlay, USA
Comment and discuss
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hi can anyone give me some info about the harders? mrs h was a beauitful women. lenny
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If anyone's interested in reading about George Harder's brother-in-law, click this link and scroll to page 353. Sylvester James McNamara was a prominent Brooklyn gynecologist and husband of Emilie Harder. Also, I hadn't noticed before that Dorothy's uncle was Brooklyn lawyer William N. Dykman. Cullen & Dykman remains a prestigious firm to this day.
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Brian, you never cease to amaze me! I'm constantly delighted by the information you supply on the lesser-known first-class passengers and their family connections. Keep 'em coming!
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aw, shucks But I have to confess, it was nothing more than reading the news articles under George and Dorothy's ET bios and googling the names I found there. I figured there couldn't be so many Sylvester James McNamaras! Reading up on the Harders is especially interesting for me because they lived in a place in which my own family lived in 1912. But, like so many, they fled Brooklyn for Manhattan and, by the time Dorothy died, were living on Park Avenue. I once dug up the wedding announcement of the Harders' daughter, Dorothy Annan Harder. It carried a photo of her, and she was a blond beauty with a very 1930's look. I imagine she and her sister Jean were the sort of New York Society girls that you see portrayed in The Thin Man movies. The Harders, like Mary Marvin, are people I have no trouble picturing in 30's New York.
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hi guys yep she was a looker.to bad she lived back them.she could have survived with a kidney transplant.thanks 4 responding. coonsanders
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I don't know much about kidneys or uremia, but I like to think modern medicine could have kept her from getting to the point where she even needed a transplant.
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hi well thats what she had and what she needed. coonsanders
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An interesting blurb taken from this site: DOCTOR ARRESTED FOR REFUSING TO PAY TWO FARES There was a lively row in the Coney Island police station yesterday afternoon, when Dr. Sylvester J. MC NAMARA, nephew of Police Captain MC NAMARA, was brought in under arrest on a charge of refusing to pay his second fare to Coney Island. The doctor, a man who had defended his refusal, a B.R.T. special policeman, and one of his friends, all made complaints and counter complaints and created such confusion that the sergeant ordered them all out of the room and told them to appear in court to-day. In the Coney Island court this morning Dr. McNAMARA pleaded not guilty and was held in $500 bail, and the case adjourned until July 3 upon the furnishing of the bail by the defendant's wife. He is 37 years old and lives at 303 Union street. ...
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A New York actor, on Friday, January 9th, 2009, in Harwich, MA. Son of George Achilles Harder, a Titanic survivor, and Elizabeth Peebles Rhodes. Source: NY Times; 1/19/2009, p18, Op Subject Terms: OBITUARIES Michael Cundiff NV, USA
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I have just finished reading his testimony during the American hearing. I was sickened and disgusted to hear him describe those screaming in the water as hysterical people from steerage. In fact, he didn't describe them as "people from steerage" but simply as "steerage." He proceeded to describe those clinging to the stern as steerage who were like ostriches with their head in the sand. All of this he witnesses from his lifeboat. The same lifeboat that he felt shouldn't have been taken back to save lives because they were already crammed in and there wasn't room. It sickens me that the goofball running the hearings (Smith, I think his name was) made absolutely no comments about any of it and didn't ask a single follow-up question. I hope that I go on to find that others behaved better than this...well, I cannot even use the word I'd like to use. Disgusting man!!!
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Where did you get the bit about acting like ostriches? I can't see it in the transcript. Are you reading the transcript, or somebody's distortion of it?
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I just read the transcript of testimony. There is no mention of ostriches. As far as his response to noises of people in the water, he basically said the noise was so intense that you couldn't hear any specific cries for help.He even mentioned that they were on rafts. Its apparent that Harder never paid attention to how many boats the Titanic had or he wouldn't assumed people were on rafts.From his testimony it's also apparent that more passengers in the lifeboat did not want to go back either.Does that make all of them digusting too? Its hard to tell if you're not in that situation how any of us would behave.As far as his response to Steerage, you have to look at the past through the beliefs and prejudices of the time, and leave ours behind.21 st century PC has no place in worlds that existed back whenever. It may painful to look at but that's the way it was. As far as disgusting goes.......I don't think George Harder is in that category as say... Charles Manson, Ted Bundy or the...
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