George F Kuntz Kunz Lusi passenger Jan 16 b15

G

Greg Burns

Member
I recently picked up a signed letter from Robert Lansing (at that time Counselor under US Secretary of State Bryan) dated March 5, 1915. The gist of the letter is acknowledgement of a letter of Mr. Kuntz' regarding "...the use of the American flag by foreign powers..." alluding to, I believe, the incident on the January 16, 1915 Lusitania voyage from Liverpool to New York. I believe that Kuntz was likely on the Lusitania on that voyage and wrote to the US State Department to complain or otherwise comment on his observations of this incident upon his return.

Is there any way to confirm if Mr. Kuntz (a famous mineralogist employed as a gem expert by the New York jewelry firm of Tiffany's) was actually a passenger on this voyage?

Regards,

Greg Burns
www.LusitaniaMedal.com
 
I'd already tried that, Eric. Thanks for the suggestion, but I drew a blank there. I was hoping that perhaps there would be a web resource for Lusitania passenger lists other than the final voyage.

Appreciatively,

Greg
 
Hi, Greg:

Before I posted, I had a look through the Lusitania passengers lists I have for the final few months. I've got them for February, March, and April, 1915, (Liverpool to New York), and of course, I don't have the one you need.

Have you tried various spellings of his name the Ellis Island site? I've found that a number of people I have looked for over the years on that site have their names spelled incorrectly.

Eric Sauder
 
Hi Eric,

Yes, I tried both Kuntz (the spelling of the addressee of the Lansing letter) and Kunz (the spelling under which he authored hundreds of books on gems)--both of whom received mail at 405 Fifth Street, New York (I think this was Tiffany's store there).

The Ellis Island site has a feature that checks for "near" spellings, and I used it. Still haven't found anything, but I'm inclined to believe he may have been a passenger on the voyage in question. He was rich, worldly, and I suspect well-traveled. Now if I could just find something to back-up my intuition.

Thanks,

Greg
 
Greg:

I have an unorthodox source which may be of some use to you. "Women's Wear Daily" aided Cunard with quite a big ad campaign in its pages during the early months of 1915 in an effort to encourage fashion buyers and other garment industry representatives to book trips despite the threat the war posed. In addition to the series of ads, the paper featured front-page listings of prominent passengers sailing on the various voyages. Naturally, most of these folks would have been people known in the "rag trade" but others were also on the lists.

I ran across this information over a year ago, during my research on Lady Duff Gordon, but I'm afraid I did not make detailed notes on the Lusitania material. I do recall that Caroline Hickson Kennedy, designer and buyer for Hickson, Inc., made a January crossing on Lusitania. I can't remember if the name Kuntz was there, however.

But if there is a library near you which may carry "Women's Wear Daily" back to that date, you might want to have a "go-see."

Randy
 
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