RMS Titanic at 100

 "Ship For the Ages"

Wilmington, Delaware.  The Kalmar Nyckel Foundation announces its Lecture Series for 2012, “Monumental Maritime Anniversaries.”  This series features three ships of international renown, each of which has made a significant contribution to our maritime heritage.  These lectures complement the Kalmar Nyckel Foundation’s mission of preserving and promoting our cultural and maritime history for the education and enrichment of all.

 Daniel Allen Butler, best-selling Titanic author, will give the capstone lecture on April 15^th – the exact 100^th anniversary of the sinking of RMS Titanic.  One of the three or four most recognizable words in the English language and the world’s best known ship, Titanic continues to resonate with modern audiences of all interests and backgrounds in ways that are almost as remarkable as the story of the tragic sinking itself.  Titanic is clearly a “Ship for the Ages” as the title of the lecture suggests, and the Kalmar Nyckel Foundation is honored to be bringing world-renowned Titanic author and speaker Daniel Allen Butler to Wilmington and the Delaware Valley.  As Sam Heed noted for the Foundation, “privileged we are to have someone in our midst with the knowledge and passion of Daniel Allen Butler.  And to have him on the exact weekend of the 100^th anniversary –  for a special showing of the film "A Night to Remember" with commentary by Daniel Allen Butler, as well as a "First Class Cocktail Reception" and a"Third Class Steerage Party" with music and dancing on the evening of April 14^th and the lecture at the Chase Center on April 15^th – makes this a weekend to look forward to and to ‘Nights to Remember.’”

 Daniel Allen Butler is a distinguished maritime and military historian as well as the best-selling author of two books on Titanic: “Unsinkable!” – the Full Story of RMS TITANIC and The Other Side of the Night: The CARPATHIA, the CALIFORNIAN, and the Night the TITANIC Was Lost.   Beyond the Titanic, Mr. Butler has written seven books on a host of subjects, from the origins of the First World War to the creation of the modern Middle East, from the history of the Cunard line to the Lusitania, from the Battle of Jutland to the siege of Khartoum.  “We’re in for a treat,” added Heed.  “I admire the way he writes, thinks, marshals evidence, and renders opinions.  Really, there’s no historian working today whose judgments I respect more.”         

Educated at Hope College, Grand Valley State University, and the University of Erlangen, Mr. Butler served in the United States Army before becoming a full time author.  He is an internationally-recognized authority on maritime subjects and a popular speaker, equally adept before a broad-range of audiences, everywhere from the National Archives in Washington, D.C., to the Queen Elizabeth 2, Queen Mary 2, and ships of the Royal Caribbean and Norwegian cruise lines.  A self-proclaimed “professional beach bum,” Mr. Butler divides what little time he spends away from his writing between his love of woodworking, his passion for his 1972 Triumph Spitfire, and his fascination with building model ships.  He currently lives and works in Los Angeles, California.     

The Kalmar Nyckel Foundation’s 2012 Lecture Series is sponsored in part by the Riverfront Development Corporation of Delaware.

THIS PROGRAM IS PARTIALLY FUNDED BY A GRANT FROM THE DELAWARE HUMANITIES FORUM, A STATE PROGRAM OF THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES.

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