Thursday, 4:30 PM
Family battles museum over Titanic legacy
By Shelley Murphy, Globe Staff
Frank J. Goldsmith was nine years old when the Titanic went down in April 1912, claiming 1,500 lives. His British parents had booked passage in hopes of starting a new life in America. As the ship listed, the boy stuffed his pockets with gumdrops before leaving his parents’ third-class cabin. On a lifeboat with his mother as it was lowered into the sea, Goldsmith watched his father lean over a railing on deck, where he would remain to perish with the ship. "So long, Frankie," his father called. "I’ll see you later."
Goldsmith survived another 70 years. He married, raised three sons, and ran a photography supply store in Mansfield, Ohio. His ashes were scattered over the site of the sinking.
In 1987, five years after Goldsmith’s death, his widow found among his personal papers a manuscript in which he put down his memories of the fateful day.
Now, 20 years later, Goldsmith’s family is battling the Springfield-based Titanic Historical Society, over the rights to the manuscript.
The historical society -- a nonprofit with about 5,000 members worldwide that publishes a quarterly newsletter and operates a museum where artifacts from the Titanic are exhibited -- filed a federal lawsuit against Goldsmith’s three sons claiming the family lost the exclusive rights to the manuscript in 1988, when the widow gave permission to the society to sell copies at an annual convention.
But family members say Goldsmith’s widow gave the society permission for the one occasion only and that the rights to the manuscript remain with the family.
