Titanic victim's legacy lives on
John Jacob Astor IV, who was one of the richest men in America, went down with the ship.
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The St. Regis
Like his guests, Astor enjoyed a pampered existence as a member of one of New York's most powerful families. But he was also a keen inventor — creating an early form of air conditioning by blowing cold air over the hotel's wall vents — and an avid bibliophile. With the help of Thornwillow Press, a small publisher of limited-edition books, the hotel is in the process of restoring and cataloguing the nearly 3,000 books that Astor left behind.
"If John Jacob Astor were to walk through the rooms, it would be entirely familiar to him," said Luke Ives Pontifel, Thornwillow's founder. "He would recognize the books on the shelves. It's a time capsule."
Credit: AP Photo/Richard Drew
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