1894; Christopher Columbus and The Participation of the Jews in the Spanish and Portuguese Discoveries; Dr. M. Kayserling; copyright 1894; Longmans, Green, and Company publishers; book in good condition with minor creasings on top spine (see image); Very nicely written note inside cover is actually dated Jan. 1887; "Translated from the Author's Manuscript with his sanction and revision by Charles Gross, PH.D., Asst. Professor of History, Harvard College"
Inside front cover -
"Purchased by me through Hon. Isadore Straus of New York, Jan. 1897, Joe Waldorf, owner, Total cost $1,10".
Honorable Isador Straus: Secretary of Commerce and Labor; Co-owner and Co-founder of Macy's Department Store.
Isidor Straus (February 6, 1845 – April 15, 1912) was a Bavarian-born American Jewish businessman, politician and co-owner of Macy's department store with his brother Nathan. He also served for just over a year as a member of the United States House of Representatives. He died with his wife, Ida, in the sinking of the passenger ship RMS Titanic.
on the Titanic -
Traveling back from a winter in Europe, mostly spent at Cape Martin in southern France, Isidor and his wife were passengers on the RMS Titanic when, at about 11:40 p.m. on April 14, 1912, it hit an iceberg. Once it was clear the Titanic was sinking, Ida refused to leave Isidor and would not get into a lifeboat without him. According to friend and Titanic survivor Colonel Archibald Gracie IV, when he offered to ask an officer if Isidor could enter a lifeboat with Ida, Isidor refused to be made an exception while women and children were still on board, while Ida is reported to have said, "I will not be separated from my husband. As we have lived, so will we die, together." Ida gave her maid her fur coat and insisted she get into a lifeboat.
Isidor and Ida were last seen on deck arm in arm; eyewitnesses described the scene as a "most remarkable exhibition of love and devotion". The ship sank at 2:20 am.
Isidor's body was recovered and taken to Halifax, Nova Scotia, and from there shipped to New York. He was first buried in the Straus-Kohns Mausoleum at Beth-El Cemetery in Brooklyn, and he was then moved to the Straus Mausoleum in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx in 1928. Ida's body was never found, so the family collected water from the wreck site and placed it in an urn in the mausoleum. Isidor and Ida are memorialized on a cenotaph outside the mausoleum with a quote from the Song of Solomon (8:7): "Many waters cannot quench love—neither can the floods drown it."