Molly Brown House Museum debuts never-before-seen Titanic artifacts in Denver
Apr 8, 2026, 4:33 PM
Next week will mark 114 years since the Titanic sank, and there is a unique way to memorialize the anniversary in Denver.
A letter penned aboard the Titanic five days before the ship sank is on public display for the first time this week at the Molly Brown House Museum in Denver’s Capitol Hill neighborhood.
American writer Archibald Gracie wrote the letter on Titanic stationery on April 10, 1912, sending it a day later when the ship docked in Queenstown, Ireland. “It is a fine ship this, but I shall await my journey’s end before I pass judgment on her,” Gracie wrote. He survived the sinking on April 15. Roughly 1,500 others did not.
The letter is the centerpiece of several rare artifacts making their debut at the museum this week, joining the home’s permanent Titanic exhibit.
Also on display for the first time are a journal recovered from Ernest Tomlin, a third-class passenger who made a single inscription on April 10, 1912 — the word “Titanic” — and a mortuary bag used by crews aboard the MacKay Bennett, a ship chartered to recover bodies, to collect the personal effects of first-class passenger Frederick Sutton.
The new artifacts join items the museum acquired in 2025 from the estate of a Margaret “Molly” Brown descendant, Katherine Benziger. Those include a letter Brown wrote to her daughter, Helen, days after the sinking recounting the harrowing events, a commemorative flag embroidered with the message “From the crew survivors to Mrs. J. J. Brown,” and an Egyptian talisman that was in Brown’s pocket when the ship went down.
The museum at 1340 Pennsylvania St. is operated by Historic Denver. The Titanic artifacts are included with general museum admission, which ranges from $12 to $20. The new items will be on display through December.
The museum also offers weekly Titanic-themed tours through April.
More information is available at mollybrown.org.
