American artist Francis Millet was BOTD in 1848. Born in Mattapoisett, Massachusetts, the son of a doctor, he joined the Unionist Army at 15, serving as a drummer boy and as his father’s surgical assistant during the American Civil War. After the war, he studied at Harvard University, beginning his professional career in Boston as a journalist and editor, and painting in his spare time. He worked as a war correspondent in Eastern Europe during the 1877 Russian-Turkish War, and was decorated by the Russian and Romanian governments for bravery. During the 1880s, he became an art advisor and trustee for the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., befriending celebrities including writer Mark Twain and painter John Singer Sargent. A noted sculptor and designer, he also designed the 1907 Civil War Medal and 1908 Campaign Medal for the US Army. Millet married Lily Merrill in 1879, with whom he had four children. In 1904 (presumably after Lily’s death), he moved to Rome to oversee the creation of the American Academy in the city, living there for seven years with his lover, the travel writer Charles Stoddard. He also shared a home in Washington, D.C. with his long-term friend military aide Archibald Butt, hosting lively all-male parties and arguing over Millet’s preference for pink and red rosebud wallpaper. The pair had a lodger, Australian-born diplomat Archie Kerr, who was fond of wearing kilts without underwear. In 1912, President James Taft despatched Butt to the Vatican to win the endorsement of Pope Pius X for the upcoming Presidential election. Millet accompanied Butt on the trip, and departed from Southhampton, England in April to return home on the Titanic. Both men died when the ship hit an iceberg. Millet’s body was recovered and returned to Massachusetts for burial. He was 63. Biographers and historians have strained to argue that Millet and Butt were just good friends, presumably so as not to tarnish Butt’s heroic image by acknowledging their relationship. Max Allan Collins’ 1999 novel The Titanic Murders portrays Butt and Millet as lovers aboard the Titanic, who murder a blackmailer threatening to expose their relationship.