Boston’s Titanic exhibit now open with more than 200 artifacts on display

According to Tomasina Ray, president of RMS Titanic Inc. and director of collections, there was “a line to get in” at Saunders Castle in Park Plaza on the first day of the exhibition with a ticket. The pop-up museum is open to visitors through February 2 and recently completed a six-month stint in Columbus, Ohio.

Upon entry, visitors are given ‘boarding passes’, which contain information about a real passenger on board the Titanic. As they travel through the exhibition, customers are encouraged to imagine life on the Titanic through the eyes of their assigned passenger. From the sleeping arrangements to the quality of food served, the ship’s experiences varied greatly for travelers depending on the class of their accommodation. Ticket prices reflected the quality of service passengers could expect, with a first-class ticket priced at $2,500 (about $57,200 today) and a third-class fare at $40 ($900 today), according to RMS Titanic Inc. can scan a provided QR code on a machine to find out the fate of their assigned passenger and whether they were one of the approximately 1,500 who died when the Titanic sank.

The experience begins by highlighting the ship’s design, displaying several artifacts from its construction: a large ship bell, a 50-pound wrench, and a door shaft stamped with the 401 code present on all parts of the Titanic, which Ray hopes will happen. debunks the conspiracy theory that it was swapped with the RMS Olympic, sister ship to the Titanic, which some believe sank instead.

Guests then walk to the passenger gallery, which offers a glimpse into guests’ life on board through personal items such as hairbrushes and tie clips, as well as the ship’s cutlery and life-size models of the Titanic’s first and third class cabins. There is also a replica of one of the ship’s grand staircases, visually similar to the one from the movie ‘Titanic’. Guests are welcome to walk up a few steps and take photos with the exhibition’s camera, which they can later purchase in the gift shop.

After spending decades on the seabed, many recovered artifacts were subject to corrosion. In addition to clearing the debris and stabilizing the effects of salt water on the item, RMS is restoring Titanic Inc. no damaged or missing parts, but shows them as found.

“We always want to make sure we select artifacts that show this was a beautiful ship,” Ray said. “But it sank in a very violent way and that affects these artifacts.”

Visitors are then led to a scale-accurate reproduction of one of the ship’s boilers, which fell from the ship as it broke up, and a Davit crane boom, which was used to launch rescue boats into the water and was recovered from the wreck site. .

According to Ray, the Iceberg Gallery depicts the “chaos of the night” when the Titanic sank, with time stamps on the wall marking the iceberg warnings the ship’s crew received. Guests can touch a piece of ice set at 28 degrees Fahrenheit, the temperature of the water on April 14, 1912.

The exhibit also shares the history of the company’s recovery efforts through photos of the site and a model of the equipment used to recover artifacts. Visitors can also touch a recovered piece of the Titanic’s starboard bow. The exhibition ends with a memorial gallery filled with personal items such as a towel, vest, trousers and a pair of binoculars recovered from the wreck, in addition to a list of all Titanic passengers and crew, both survivors and non-survivors.

“It wasn’t just statistics,” Ray said. “There were more than 2,200 people on the ship and they each had their own lives.”

TITANIC: THE ARTIFACT EXHIBITION

The Saunders Castle at Park Plaza, 130 Columbus Ave. General tickets cost $39.50. Currently until February 2, 2025. titanicboston.us

Arushi Jacob can be reached at [email protected].