The Molly Brown House Museum 
Volunteer Resources

From Mollv Brown: Unraveling the Myth. The true life story of the Titanic's most famous survivor. By Kristen Iversen

 

Margaret Tobin Brown was born on July 18, 1867, in Hannibal, Missouri, to John and Johanna Tobin, both Irish immigrants. At the time he met Johanna, John Tobin, widowed from his first wife Bridget, had an eleven-year-old daughter named Catherine Bridget. Johanna Collins, widowed from John Reading, had a ten-year-old daughter Mary Ann. They had four additional children: Daniel in 1863, Margaret in 1867, William in 1869, and Helen in 1871. The six siblings remained close their entire lives.

Margaret, known as "Maggie" as a child, grew up in a cottage just blocks from the Mississippi River, and attended the grammar school across the street run by her aunt, Mary O'Leary. As a teenager she worked stripping tobacco leaves at Garth's Tobacco Company in Hannibal. Daniel Tobin followed his sister, Mary Ann Tobin Landrigan, and Mary's new husband Jack Landrigan, to Leadville, Colorado, where the Landrigans established a blacksmith shop. Daniel decided to stay in Leadville and sent money for his sisters, 18-year-old Margaret and 14-year-old Helen, to join him. (Helen only visited, although she moved to Leadville later). Margaret shared a cabin with Daniel, who worked in the mines and eventually became a successful mine promoter. 

​

Margaret went to work for Daniels and Fisher Mercantile in Leadville, where she worked in the Carpets and Draperies department. This store eventually became The May Company, then May D & F, and is known today as Macy's. During the early summer of 1886, she met James Joseph ("J.J.") Brown, a miner whose parents had also immigrated from Ireland. They married on September 1, 1886, at the Annunciation Church in Leadville, and lived in J.J.'s cabin in Stumpftown, a small, primarily Irish community up the hill from Leadville. The Browns had two children: Lawrence Palmer, born in 1887, and Catherine Ellen ("Helen"), born in 1889. 

​

After the birth of Lawrence, the Browns bought a house in Leadville and were eventually joined by members of both their families.While her children were young, Margaret worked in soup kitchens to assist families of Leadville miners and continued her education, taking lessons in French and piano. When the Sherman Silver Act was repealed in 1893, Leadville was thrust into a deep depression and the unemployment rate was 90 percent. J.J. Brown, who had a stake in the Ibex mining properties, worked with the other owners including his friend and partner John Campion for many years in the search for gold in the Little Jonny mine. While they struck gold in 1892 they didn't make a public announcement until 1893 giving them time to buy the surrounding claims. By October 29, 1893, the Little Jonny was shipping 135 tons of gold ore per day, and J.J. and his partners became incredibly wealthy men. Over the years he became one of the most successful mining men in the country.  

​

On April 6, 1894, the Browns purchased a home on Pennsylvania Street in Denver and built a summer home, Avoca Lodge, in the foothills. Margaret became a founding member of the Denver Woman's Club, part of a network of clubs which advocated literacy, education, suffrage, and human rights in Colorado and throughout the United States. She raised funds to build the Cathedral of Immaculate Conception as well as St. Joseph's Hospital, and worked with Judge Ben Lindsey to help destitute children and supported Lindsey as he oversaw the growth of the first Juvenile Court west of the Mississippi, which eventually became one of the bases for today's U.S. juvenile court system. She also attended the Carnegie Institute in Pennsylvania, where she studied literature, language, and drama - one of the first women in the country to do so. In addition to raising two children of her own, she raised the three daughters of her brother Daniel: Grace, Florence, and Helen Tobin, whose mother had died when they were young.

​

On July 25, 1914, with Alva Vanderbilt (Mrs. O.H.P.) Belmont, Margaret organized an international women's rights conference at Marble House in Newport, Rhode Island, which was attended by human rights activists from around the world. On July 15, 1927, she led a group of delegates from the National Woman's Party to appeal to President Coolidge for passage of the Equal Rights Amendment. A lifelong advocate of human rights, Margaret was also a prominent figure following the Ludlow Massacre in Trinidad, Colorado, in April 1914, a significant landmark in the history of labor rights in the United States.

​

By the time Margaret Tobin Brown boarded Titanic at Cherbourg, France, she had already made a significant impact in the world. She and her daughter Helen, who was a student at the Sorbonne, had been traveling throughout Europe and were staying with the John Jacob Astor party in Cairo, Egypt, when Margaret received word that her first grandchild, Lawrence Palmer Brown, Jr., was ill. She decided to leave for New York immediately, and booked passage on the earliest ship: Titanic. At the last minute Helen decided to stay behind in Paris. Due to her quick decision, very few people, including family, knew that Margaret was on board Titanic. After the ship struck the iceberg, Margaret helped load others into lifeboats and eventually was forced to board lifeboat six. She and the other women in lifeboat six worked together to row, keep spirits up, and dispel the gloom that was broadcast by the emotional and unstable Robert Hichens. However, Margaret's most significant work occurred on Carpathia, where she assisted Titanic survivors, and afterwards in New York. By the time Carpathia reached New York harbor, Margaret had helped establish the Survivor's Committee, been elected as chair, and raised almost $10,000 for destitute survivors. Margaret's language skills in French, German, and Russian were an asset, and she remained on Carpathia until all Titanic survivors had met with friends, family, or medical and emergency assistance. 

​

In a letter to her daughter shortly after the Titanic sinking, she wrote: "After being brined, salted, and pickled in mid ocean I am now high and dry . . . I have had flowers, letters, telegrams -- people until I am befuddled. They are petitioning Congress to give me a medal. . .  If I must call a specialist to examine my head it is due to the title of Heroine of the Titanic." Her sense of humor prevailed; to her attorney in Denver she wired: "Thanks for the kind thoughts. Water was fine and swimming good. Neptune was exceedingly kind to me and I am now high and dry.”

​

On May 29, 1912, as chair of the Survivor's Committee Margaret presented a silver loving cup to Captain Rostron of Carpathia and a medal to each Carpathia crew member. In later years Margaret helped erect the Titanic memorial that stands in Washington, D.C.; visited the cemetery in Halifax, Nova Scotia, to place wreaths on the graves of Titanic victims; and continued to serve on the Survivor's Committee. She was particularly upset that, as a woman, she was not allowed to testify at the Titanic hearings. In response she wrote her own version of the event which was published in newspapers in Denver, New York, and Paris. Margaret used her new fame as a platform to talk about issues that deeply concerned her: labor rights, women's rights, education and literacy for children, and historic preservation. 

​

During World War I, she worked with the American Committee for Devastated France to help rebuild devastated areas behind the front line, and worked with wounded French and American soldiers (the Chateau of Blerancourt, a French-American museum outside of Paris, has a commemorative plaque that bears her name). In 1932 she was awarded the French Legion of Honor for her "overall good citizenship," which included helping organize the Alliance Francais, her ongoing work in raising funds for Titanic victims and crew, her work with Judge Ben Lindsey on the Juvenile Court of Denver, and her relief efforts during World War I.

​

Margaret's story is relevant today for many reasons - one being her lifelong attempt to balance career, travel, and family concerns. Dedicated to her civic and political issues, she nevertheless was a lifelong devoted mother and aunt. Her philanthropy, ambition, and love of travel sometimes clashed with J.J.'s more conventional attitudes about the proper role of women; this, and other reasons, led to their legal separation in 1909. They never divorced, however, and their relationship, although sometimes turbulent, was always close. J.J. died in 1922 without a will, after which the family attempted to work out a fair distribution of assets in the courts. By 1925 the family had reconciled.

In her latter years Margaret returned to her earlier fascination with drama, particularly Sarah Bernhardt, and studied in Paris in the Bernhardt tradition. She performed to appreciative audiences in Paris and New York.

 

Shortly before her death, when she was suffering from extreme migraine headaches, she wrote,

"I am a daughter of adventure. This means that I never experience a dull moment and never know when I may go up in an airplane and come down with a crash, or go motoring and climb a pole, or go off for a walk in the twilight and return all mussed up in an ambulance. That's my arc, as the astrologers would say. It's a good one, too, for a person who had rather make a snap-out than a fade-out of life."

​

Margaret Tobin Brown died of a brain tumor on October 26, 1932, at the Barbizon Hotel in New York where she had been working with young actresses. Despite the legend, she was not and had never been ostracized by society nor rejected by her family. The myth of "Molly" Brown has very little to do with the real life of Margaret Tobin Brown., although it speaks to her spirit. Margaret was never known as "Molly": the name was a Hollywood invention. The story began in the 1930s with the colorful pen of Denver Post reporter Gene Fowler, who created a folk tale, and sensationalist writer Carolyn Bancroft, who wrote a highly fictional account for a romance magazine that was turned into a booklet. This story enjoyed various radio broadcasts during the 1940s and was the basis for the Broadway play, The Unsinkable Molly Brown, which eventually became the MGM movie of the same name, starring Debbie Reynolds. 

​

Even James Cameron's Titanic has very little to do with the real story of Margaret Tobin Brown. After attempting to mitigate or correct the legend of "Molly," the Brown family eventually withdrew from the public and refused to speak with writers, reporters, or historians. Only recently have they agreed to cooperate with the efforts of a historian, Kristen Iversen, and allowed access to letters, scrapbooks, photographs, and many personal effects of Margaret Tobin Brown that had previously been unavailable.

​

From Mollv Brown: Unraveling the Myth. The true life story of the Titanic's most famous survivor. By Kristen Iversen; see staff for a library copy or purchase with your discount in the museum store.