Edith Louise Rosenbaum Russell was an American fashion buyer, stylist and correspondent for Women's Wear Daily, best remembered for surviving the 1912 sinking of the RMS Titanic with a music box in the shape of a pig. The papier-mâché toy, covered in pigskin and playing a tune known as "The Maxixe" when its tail was twisted, was used by Edith Russell to calm frightened children in the lifeboat in which she escaped. Her story became widely known in the press at the time and was later included in the best-selling account of the disaster A Night to Remember by Walter Lord. Russell was also portrayed in the award-winning British film produced by William MacQuitty that was based on Lord's book.
Edith Rosenbaum Russell shortly after her rescue from the Titanic, carrying the toy pig with which she escaped the ship
Edith Rosenbaum in 1911, the year she began work as a fashion stylist.
A 1922 advertisement for Edith Russell's fashion consulting and importing business.
In her later years, Edith Russell and her toy pig were in demand for TV and radio talk shows.
Lifeboats played a crucial role during the sinking of the Titanic on 14–15 April 1912. The ship had 20 lifeboats that, in total, could accommodate 1,178 people, a little over half of the 2,209 on board the night it sank.
The Titanic's Collapsible Boat D approaches RMS Carpathia at 7:15 am on 15 April 1912.
The Titanic, showing eight lifeboats along the starboard-side boat deck (upper deck): four lifeboats near the bridge wheel house and four lifeboats near the 4th funnel.
Titanic's wooden lifeboats in New York Harbor following the disaster. This particular image has been doctored to add the words "R.M.S. Titanic".[citation needed] The lifeboats bore the name "S.S. Titanic" on a plaque mounted at the other end of the boat.
Arrangement of lifeboats on the forward part of the Boat Deck of Titanic, shown on a large-scale model of the ship