Launching the Titanic

by Jenny Profet

Since April, there have been signs around the Museum announcing that Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition would be here in September. For the past several months, staff members from all sections of the Museum have been working hard to get ready for this fateful launch.

Floor plans were drawn by the Exhibits department, and the marketing team got the word out. Lots of special events have been planned (costume contest, anyone?). But how does an exhibit go from one city to the next?

Happy Monday! The Titanic trucks start to arrive.

It can take anywhere from several days to many months to install an exhibit. It took our staff over two months to install the Dead Sea Scrolls back in 2008. But Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition will be installed in just eight days!

Bright and early Monday morning, six tractor trailers and nearly two dozen people arrived at our loading dock. The company that created the exhibition sent a crew to direct various aspects of the installation, from carpentry to lighting to artifact installation. We hired some local theater crews to help, and several of our own staff members will be working furiously over the next few days.

By the end of the first day, all the trucks had been unloaded and the exhibit hall was overflowing with crates. The crew was even able to start putting together a few sets!

Walls are built inside the traveling exhibits gallery, and then the painting begins.

Artifact cases are moved into place as crates are unpacked.

The exhibition will recreate scenes from the ship’s story, including its construction, a third-class cabin, the captain’s bridge, the iceberg that caused the ship’s untimely demise, a lifeboat, and a Memorial Gallery. The story comes to life with artifacts recovered from the wreck site.

Pieces of the exhibition are put into place. The frostiest part is the touchable iceberg.

In addition to artifacts, the exhibit is filled with props to help recreate scenes from aboard the ship.

A glimpse of the captain’s bridge

Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition opens September 29, 2012 and runs until April 28, 2013. Tickets can be purchased at
http://www.tickets.naturalsciences.org
. Get your boarding pass at the Museum to explore the ship before it goes down again!

A model of the Titanic wreck site is on display in the Nature Research Center lobby. You can explore the shipwreck with interactive videos inside the exhibit.

All photos by Jenny Profet and Wendy Lovelady

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