This monument by sculptor Augustus Lukeman (1872–1935) and architect Evarts Tracy commemorates Isidor (1845–1912) and Ida (1849–1912) Straus, who died aboard the R.M.S. Titanic. The memorial fountain was dedicated on April 15, 1915.
Isidor Straus was born in Bavaria, Germany, in 1845. The Straus family immigrated to America in 1854 and settled in Georgia. After the Civil War, they relocated to New York where Lazarus Straus began L. Straus & Sons with his sons, Isidor and Nathan. By 1888, the brothers had advanced from operating a crockery concession at R.H. Macy & Co. to owning the company. In 1902, they opened the world’s largest department store, Macy’s at Herald Square. They also became partners in Abraham & Straus in 1893 (in operation until 1995 when Federated Department Stores discontinued the name). In 1871, Isidor married Ida Blun, who was from Worms, Germany. In addition to raising their six children, Ida joined her husband as a philanthropist with a special concern for health, education, and other public services.
Lovely and pleasant were they in their lives and in their death they were not divided.
II Samuel 1:23
The Strauses were aboard the Titanic on April 15, 1912, when it sank on its maiden voyage from England to America. The ship hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic and sank three hours later. More than 1,500 passengers and crew died in the disaster. The biblical quotation above is inscribed on the rear exedra of the Straus Monument, paying tribute to Ida’s decision to remain aboard with her husband rather than save herself by boarding a lifeboat with the women and children.
In 1912, the City named this park after the Strauses, who had lived in a frame house at 27-47 Broadway, near 105th Street. Public subscriptions of $20,000 were raised to commission this monument. The work consists of a granite curved exedra, a central bronze reclining female figure of Memory (for which the celebrated model Audrey Munson posed), and a reflecting pool. The monument was dedicated three years to the day after the Titanic sank.