Philadelphia Traction Co. signed by George D. Widener - Died on the Titanic - 1905-1907 dated Autograph Stock Certificate

Stock printed by American Bank Note Company, Philadelphia and signed as president by George D. Widener, who died on the Titanic! Item may not be exact piece shown, fortunately the nicest signature possible will go to the first buyer. Please specify color.

George Dunton Widener (June 16, 1861 – April 15, 1912) was an American businessman who died in the sinking of the RMS Titanic. Widener was born in Philadelphia on June 16, 1861. He was the eldest son of Hannah Josephine Dunton (1836–1896) & Peter Arrell Brown Widener (1834–1915), an extremely wealthy streetcar magnate.

He joined his father's business & eventually took over the running of the Philadelphia Traction Company, overseeing the development of cable & electric streetcar operations. He also served on the board of directors of several important area businesses, including Philadelphia Traction Co., Land Title Bank & Trust Co., Electric Storage Battery Co., & Portland Cement Co. A patron of the arts, Widener was a director of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.

In 1912, Widener, his wife, & their son Harry traveled to Paris, France, w/ original intentions to find a chef for Widener's new Philadelphia hotel, The Ritz Carlton. The Wideners booked their return passage on RMS Titanic. After the ship struck an iceberg, Widener placed his wife & her maid Amalie Gieger in a lifeboat. The women were rescued by the steamship RMS Carpathia, but Widener & his son Harry & their valet Edwin Keeping perished on the Titanic. The bodies of the father & son, if recovered, were not identified.

The Philadelphia Transportation Company (PTC) was the main public transit operator in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from 1940 to 1968. A private company, PTC was the successor to the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company (PRT), in operation since 1902, & was the immediate predecessor of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA).

PTC was established on January 1, 1940, by the merger of the PRT & several smaller, then-independent transit companies operating in & near the city. It operated a citywide system of bus, trolley, & trackless trolley routes, the Market–Frankford Line (subway-elevated rail), the Broad Street Line (subway), & the Delaware River Bridge Line (subway-elevated rail to City Hall, Camden, New Jersey, & now part of the PATCO Speedline) which became SEPTA's City Transit Division. PTC operated the rapid transit lines in urban Philadelphia – principally the Market–Frankford Line & Broad Street Line – leasing their fixed infrastructure from the City of Philadelphia. Most suburban transit lines were operated by Suburban Transportation Company known as Red Arrow (Trolley Lines, Southern Penn Bus Company (Bus Lines) & Philadelphia & Western Railway (Norristown & Strafford interurban lines). PTC's network also included the Philadelphia trolleybus system, which was much smaller, along w/ numerous bus lines.

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