Louis and Lola: the photographs that found their mother
14 photos, hung as rooms. Every plaque says what the family confirmed — and what is still a guess.
About this exhibit
In April 1912 two small boys were pulled from a lifeboat and nobody knew who they were. They spoke French. The younger could not talk. Their father had boarded under a false name and drowned, and the name he had used was not theirs. So the photographs on this wall were taken and sent out as evidence, not as portraits, in the hope that somebody who knew their faces would see one. Somebody did. The Library of Congress still files them under the wrong names, with a question mark the archive never removed.
The walk
14 photos
The lifeboats, rowing to the Carpathia
WhenApril 1912
WhereNorth Atlantic
The Carpathia turned back through the ice and reached the position at dawn. This is what was left to collect. The Library of Congress notes the photograph was possibly taken by a passenger, J.W. Barker. Nobody in the boats is named.
Survivors, on their way to the rescue ship
WhenApril 1912
WhereNorth Atlantic
Closer, and now they are people rather than a boat. The archive recorded not one of their names.
Aboard the Carpathia
WhenApril 1912
Whereaboard the RMS Carpathia
Safe, and still anonymous. The ship carried about 700 survivors to New York over three days.
Waiting for the Carpathia
WhenApril 1912
WhereNew York
Every person here is waiting to learn whether someone they love is aboard. The archive did not write down a single one of their names either.
The crowd, waiting
WhenApril 1912
WhereNew York
Held for a second frame on purpose. This wall is about to ask you to recognise a face, and this is what a thousand unrecognised faces look like.
"Louis & Lola ?" — the children nobody could name
WhenApril 1912
WhereNew York
Look at the top of the photograph: the caption is inked onto the negative itself, in 1912, question mark included. Michel was four and Edmond was two. They spoke French, the younger could barely speak at all, and their father had boarded under the name Louis Hoffman and drowned. Nobody knew who they were, so this photograph was made as evidence and sent out.
WhoEdmond Navratil, Michel Navratil
"Louis & Lola ? from Titanic"
WhenApril 1912
WhereNew York
The Library of Congress record for this frame states the ending plainly: it was taken "before the orphans of the Titanic were correctly identified and returned to their mother". Somebody saw a published photograph and recognised a face. That is the whole of it.
WhoEdmond Navratil, Michel Navratil
"Louis & Lola ?" — the third frame
WhenApril 1912
WhereNew York
Three photographs of the same two children, made the same day, because one of them might be the one that worked. Their mother Marcelle was in France and did not know they were on the ship.
WhoEdmond Navratil, Michel Navratil
Stuart Collett, and three men the record forgot
When1912
Whereaboard the RMS Carpathia
Four men stand in this frame and the archive names one. His name is written across the plate in the same hand that wrote the children's question mark. ⚠️ The Library files this as "1912 April 13 [?]" — its own uncertainty, and two days before the ship sank, so the plaque carries the year alone.
WhoStuart Collett
Margaret Brown, survivor
Whenbetween 1890 and 1920
The survivor everyone can name, hung among people nobody can. The Library dates this portrait only to a thirty-year span, so the plaque does not pretend to a year.
WhoMargaret Brown
Dr Henry Frauenthal, survivor
When1925
Photographed thirteen years afterwards and still captioned by the ship. The record identifies him as a surgeon, a Titanic survivor, and a founder of the Jewish Hospital for Deformities.
WhoHenry Frauenthal
Karl Behr, survivor
Whenbetween 1915 and 1920
The record files him as a tennis player and banker who survived the Titanic. The archive kept his name because he was already famous, which is the quietest unfairness on this wall. The Library dates the photograph only to about 1915 to 1920, so the plaque does not pretend to a year.
WhoKarl Behr
Captain Arthur Rostron of the Carpathia
When1912
He turned his ship north through an ice field at full speed on the chance that someone was still alive. Command gets written down.
WhoArthur Rostron
Captain Rostron and the officers of the Carpathia
When1912
Whereaboard the RMS Carpathia
One man in this photograph is named and the rest are "under officers". The wall ends where it began: a group of people, most of them unrecorded, and a question still open.
WhoArthur Rostron
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