7,000-square-foot Titanic exhibit coming to Indy later this year

On 06/07/2010
In Museum News
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By Amy Bartner - Indy Star

In the world of on-screen heartthrobs, seductive vampires have replaced third-class Titanic passengers like the one played by Leonardo DiCaprio. Yet in the 13 years since "Titanic" premiered -- and in the 98 years since that unsinkable ship sank -- the tragedy still captivates the world.

Now, artifacts from the most famous shipwreck in history will come to the Indiana State Museum on Sept. 25 as part of "Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition," museum officials announced today.

"There are 240 artifacts, ranging from china, personal objects carried by passengers, up to actual parts of the ship that have been recovered from the seafloor," said Rex Garniewicz, vice president of programs at the museum.

"One of the great things about the exhibit is that it really tells the whole story.

"It really is a comprehensive exhibit."

Visitors will get the opportunity to feel what it was like to be a Titanic passenger.

"At the entrance of the exhibit, they'll receive a boarding pass with a passenger's name, and they'll go through this exhibit as that passenger," Garniewicz said. "Most of these passengers will be third-class passengers, not first-class."

As they walk through the 7,000-square-foot exhibit, they'll experience the Titanic from construction to everyday life among the different social classes on board, in re-created cabins and hallways.

When visitors reach the point of impact with the iceberg that sank the Titanic, they'll be able to touch a chunk of ice set at 28 degrees, the water temperature April 14, 1912, the night of the collision.