Buy THE Definitive Guide to D.C. Sculpture The Outdoor Sculpture of Washington, D.C. BUTT-MILLET Memorial Fountain near the Ellipse in Washington, D.C. by Daniel Chester French Major Archibald Willingham Butt (September 26, 1865 – April 15, 1912) was an influential military aide to U.S. presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft. Before becoming an aide to Roosevelt, Butt had pursued a career in journalism and served in the Spanish-American War. After a six week vacation in Europe in 1912, he boarded the ocean liner RMS Titanic. On the night of April 14 the Titanic struck an iceberg and sank the next morning with Butt being one of the 1,517 victims of the disaster. Stories of his actions while the ship was sinking made him one of the heroes of the disaster although they were largely unverified. Many accounts of a typically sensationalist nature were published by newspapers after the disaster. According to some accounts, Titanic captain Edward J. Smith informed Butt that the "ship was doomed" and that "lifeboats were being readied." Butt immediately began acting as another officer of the ship, herding women and children into the lifeboats. One account tells of Butt staving off desperate steerage men trying to crowd the boats to escape. Walter Lord's book A Night to Remember disagrees with claims that Butt acted like an officer, claiming he was more likely quietly observing the ship's evacuation Source: Wikipedia Francis Davis Millet (November 3, 1846 - April 15, 1912) was an American painter and writer who died in the sinking of the RMS Titanic. Born in Mattapoisett, Massachusetts, Millet entered the Massachusetts regiment aged only sixteen, first as a drummer boy and then a surgical assistant (helping his father, a surgeon) in the American Civil War. He repeatedly pointed to his experience working for his father as giving him an appreciation for the vivid blood red that he repeatedly used in his early paintings. He worked as a reporter and editor for the Boston Courier and then as a correspondent for the "Advertiser" at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition. Source: Wikipedia Photos courtesy of the National Park Service, President's Park. Submitted by Ronda Bernstein on behalf of the NPS. Thanks Ronda! As works of the federal gov't they are in the public domain. (4/21/2007) Note: The area surrounding the fountain is currently under construction & therefore not open to the public (4/23/2007)
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