Titanic Artifact Exhibition
Today has been a long day! On the spur of the moment, I decided I was going to downtown St. Louis to the Science Center to see the Titanic Artifact Exhibition. I have been wanting to see this since I heard it was coming - I’ve been a Titanic buff since 5th grade when I read about it in history (yes, waaaay before the 1997 movie!) - and since they had already extended the exhibit a week, it was now or never.
This. Thing. Was. Amaz.ing!
I loved it! Well worth the $20 I put in for the $34 for our tickets ($12 each for me and my mother-in-law, $10 for Sarah, Elijah was free).
You entered first into a dark hallway with portraits of passengers followed by two rooms of artifacts including a leather suitcase still in relatively good shape (for being on the ocean floor for 80+ years), an actual piece of the ship to which rope was tied (sorry, can’t remember the actual name), rivets, postcards, glasses, a purse and comb, etc. From that room, it was as if you were boarding the Titanic yourself. We entered this small parlor-like room and then went down a hallway of first class cabins. There were several more rooms of artifacts and more re-makes including a first class cabin, a third class cabin, a boiler room hallway (something like that), and: the grand staircase.
That was my absolute favorite, it was amazing - so wonderfully recreated, actual size, all but one detail perfect. Alexander’s Ragtime Band played and we could almost feel like we were back in 1912 looking at the real thing. It really was breathtaking.
So many more artifacts… dishes, champagne bottles still sealed with champagne inside, the metal from benches, perfume bottles, copper (I think) window designs, jewelry, razors and shaving necessities, a safe door, tile from various floors, sinks, chamber pots, coin purses, soap dishes, clothing, paper money, a lifeboat launcher, light fixtures, hats, and so much more, including Elijah’s favorite… an iceberg.
Okay, so it wasn’t an actual iceberg but it was ice! It was totally unreal - I was personally hot in the rest of the room and standing next to the iceberg I was pretty comfortable. It wasn’t like going into the penguin house at the zoo or anything, the room itself was just so not cold but the iceberg remained cold. The plaque next to it said that salt water hardens at a higher temperature than fresh, so I guess that was helping. The sign also said to touch it, and we did, Elijah loved it, he kept saying, “the cold, the cold, hahahahahaha, cold!” There were handprints where people had held their hands until they made pretty good prints. I was glad Elijah liked this, it gave me some time to check out the other items in the room while he enjoyed the ice with Sarah. He wasn’t too fond of the rest of the exhibit, the dark areas were, well, dark, and he freaked when we went into a few areas like the model of the third class hallway and room. He’s never liked sad music…
And, of course, all throughout the exhibit, there were signs and plaques talking of the people and items on the ship, photos, etc. Occassionally there would be a video playing, too, silent films of people boarding the ship, etc. In the second to last room, there was a model of what Titanic looks like on the bottom of the ocean today and a piece of the ship that you could actually touch.
It was only in the last room where we’d realized finally what the “tickets” we’d been given at the beginning were for. We had pretty much pocketed (pursed) our “tickets” until then, but in the last room one wall was just full of names. They were separated… first class… second class… third class… crew… then separated again… lost… lived… And each of our tickets had a real name on it! My mother-in-law and I held a boarding pass for people who survived, Elijah and Sarah’s people were lost.
Mine read:
Passenger Ticket per Steamship: R.M.S. Titanic
SAILING FROM: Southampton DATE: 10/April 1912
—————
PASSENGER NAME: Mrs. John Morgan Davies (Elizabeth Agnes White)
AGE: 48 FROM: St. Ives Cornwall, England
ACCOMPANIED BY: Joseph Nicholls and John Morgan Davies (sons), Maude Sincock (family friend), and Alice Phillips (friend)
CLASS: 1st __ 2nd _X_ 3rd __ CABIN #: Unknown
TRAVELING TO: Hancock, Michigan
REASON: After being widowed twice, Agnes decided to take her younger children to Northern Michigan and live with her eldest son, who had established himself there.
—————
PASSENGER FACT: To raise money for tickets on Titanic, Agnes sold all her belongings.
It was as if someone had filled it out with a typewriter and handwriting. Elijah had a man named Johnannes Joseph Van de Velde, age 38, from Belgium, traveling alone in third class on his way to Gladstone, MI. Johnannes was an out of work weaver and had been convinced to travel on Titanic by an official at the local White Star Line office, in order to find a good-paying farm labour job in the US. He had already been to the US before three times and the ticket says that he probably convinced many of the other 15 Belgian third-class passengers to travel on Titanic. I still have Sarah’s card as she handed it to me to hold afterward, she had a woman named Mrs. John Henry Champan (Sarah Elizabeth Lawry), age 29 from Cornwall, England traveling with her husband in second class on her way to Spokane, Washington, immigrating to live closer to her brother. The ticket states that this was a belated honeymoon for her and her husband, they were one of over 20 newlywed couples on the ship. Sarah seemed quite disappointed that her person had died.
Then, of course, you exit through a gift shop. Surprisingly there wasn’t really that much there outside of the typical books and posters but there was some jewelry including some that’s supposed to have coal from Titanic in it, some puzzles, models, and little knick-knack like items, postcards, keychains, etc. I bought a keychain I couldn’t resist and three postcard books for using with postcrossing.com. I wanted to get Elijah a little model of the ship but they didn’t have any - the closest things would have been a do-it-yourself model that would have been very huge and then a little one that was actually a pencil sharpener - I didn’t think that was appropriate for him. I also would have gotten the newspaper from the day after the sinking - reprints, of course - but I already have one. :)
We walked around the Science Center some more after that…
…and had a relatively good time (though I couldn’t stand whatever it was I was smelling on the 1st floor, it was making me sick, bleh) before leaving and hitting a few stores and finally getting something to eat around 7 (I hadn’t eaten since breakfast, I was about to keel over, even Elijah ate good and without complaints, it was amazing). I didn’t get home until 10.30 and wasn’t able to sit down and relax until 11.45 and now it’s 1.27. Goodnight. :-)
