Label
C
arrie Constance Toogood Chaffee was forty-seven years old when she and her husband Herbert boarded the Titanic at Southampton, returning first-class from Europe to their home in Amenia, North Dakota. The family business Herbert managed, the Amenia & Sharon Land Company, controlled 42,000 acres of prime farmland, thirty-four grain elevators, a grain-trading firm, and three company towns with dozens of smaller company-owned businesses.
After midnight on April 15, 1912, Mrs. Chaffee stepped into the relative safety of lifeboat 4 wearing a long black gown, this black lace shawl and a full-length sable coat. Herbert Chaffee remained on board the Titanic and perished.
Returning home, the grieving widow rebuilt her life, taking an active role in managing the Land Company’s assets and was a leader in several regional charitable organizations. She died July 4, 1931.
The shawl stayed with the family and came to the San Diego Maritime Museum after the death of the Chaffees’ son, Herbert Laurence (Larry) Chaffee.
Donor: Mrs. Frances A. Chaffee
