‘Blockbuster’ Titanic exhibit comes to Baylor’s Mayborn Museum
Earlier this month, Baylor’s Mayborn Museum debuted its biggest exhibit ever — Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition. Featuring more than 150 artifacts recovered from the ocean floor, the exhibit takes visitors on a journey back in time through the design, building, and ultimate tragedy of the RMS Titanic.
Upon entering the exhibit, attendees are given a replica boarding pass with the name of a passenger who actually travelled on the ship. Replicas of passenger cabins give visitors of all ages a good sense of what life on the Titanic might have been like, and a wide variety of recovered artifacts — from construction pieces, tiles and chandeliers to luggage, fine china and cookware — anchor the stories we’ve all heard in reality.
[SEE PHOTOS from the Mayborn’s Titanic exhibit]
Around such centerpieces, wall displays share stories of individuals who sailed the Titanic, weather bulletins from the evening of April 14, 1912, telegraph messages from the ship’s watchmen, and more. Though the ship sailed more than 100 years ago, the exhibit does an incredible job of making museum-goers feel like they’re walking through that fateful night. I personally challenge you to try holding your hand to the iceberg on display for more than a minute — then realize that many passengers floated in waters that temperature (and colder) for hours that night waiting to be saved.
Some were rescued — and some were not, as a memorial wall at the end of the exhibit notes. The wall lists each of the 2,000+ passengers and crew aboard the ship that night, listing who lived or who died. As a final touch, visitors are encouraged to look for the name on their replica boarding pass to see if they survived or not — adding an emotional connection to the lives of those who boarded the Titanic.
The Titanic collection is the largest and longest-running traveling exhibit the Mayborn Museum has ever hosted. While most such exhibits take three to four days to set up, this one took almost three weeks. Tickets to the exhibit, which will be here through January 6, 2019, can be purchased at maybornmuseum.com.
Sic ’em, Mayborn Museum!