By Adam Gibson | Assistant News Editor
The Titanic’s story is a well known story across the nation that many have heard and seen through the extremely popular 1997 film by James Cameron, entitled,”Titanic.” The Mayborn Museum is bringing “Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition,” to Waco from June 2 through the end of 2018.
According to Rebecca Nall, assistant director of exhibits, communications and visitor services, the Titanic exhibit has been on the museum’s calendar for many years.
“It’s an exhibit that we are renting. So, all the exhibits that we have are travelling exhibits,” Nall said. “We’ve had this exhibit on our schedule for several years … And we really just research museums and companies that provide traveling exhibits so that we can provide a varied experience for the community.”
At the exhibit, one can expect to see over 200 artifacts from the Titanic and will be immersed in the life of the Titanic.
Charlie Walter, director of the Mayborn Museum, described the exhibit as a story where you can learn more about everything on the Titanic.
When you enter the exhibit, you are given a character who was an actual passenger on the Titanic, Walter said. Walter added that the hope is to give you the feeling of being on the ship through your character’s story by having to go through what the actual passengers went through.
“You walk in to the exhibit and you learn about the building of Titanic and what it took to build the amazing ship,” Walter said. “Then you go through a section of the exhibit that’s talking about what it was like to be on the Titanic … Then you go around the corner and there’s a big ice wall, it’s actually a wall of ice in the exhibit and you can touch it and look at it, but then things get dark and there’s this kind of dramatic music and they talk about the night of the sinking and all of the different stories around that.”
As far as the artifacts go, Nall said they were all recovered from the Titanic and that some are going to be used to model parts of the ship.
“There’s some representation of a first-class stateroom on the ship as well as a third-class stateroom,” Nall said.
At the end of the exhibit, there is a list of those who passed away and those who lived on the Titanic so each participant who goes through, gets to see whether they, through their character, survived or died.
“You find out whether you literally lived or died on that night and it’s just very impactful through that whole experience,” Walter said.
According to Walter, everybody should come visit the exhibit since the event is one of the most well-known events in history. It’s also one of the best times to see what truly happened the night the Titanic sank and that if we were alive when the ship was being built, we would have wanted to see it.
“The thing about it is that it’s one of the most infamous, chilling aspects of history,” Walter said. “If we were back in that time and we heard that this amazing ship was under way, I think that we would all have wanted to be there … In the stories of the people who were aboard the ship and survived bring to life what it was really like. So, I think it’s just that true life adventure and people wanting to understand what it might have been like aboard that ship and that night and what happened.”
The exhibit opens June 2 and will go through the rest of 2018. Tickets go on sale April 10 and are open to the public.
