Titanic: The Artifact Exhibit

This exhibit runs from June 1, 2013 to January 5, 2014 and I knew I had to see it. I’ve been fascinated by historical tragedies for as long as I can remember. Not so much for the morbidity of it, but because of the knowledge that comes out of them.
I’ve been wanting a family day for a few weeks and decided today was the day and we were going to go to the Great Lakes Science Center. There is a whole bunch of stuff for the kids to enjoy and of course, the Titanic Exhibit!
We started by parking in the attached parking garage and walking right into the Great Lakes Science Center. We purchased our membership, knowing we would want to come back, it just made the most sense. Titanic was $10 over the regular admittance, but I really wanted to see it.
We circled around to the regular exhibits and the steamship museum first, then circled back to Titanic.

This was a cool light coming in through the parking garage and they had lights moving around so you felt as if you were on the water. The kids loved it!

The entrance to the exhibit has a green screen setup so you can have your ‘king of the world’ moment. Me and my sweetie aren’t exactly Jack & Rose, but it was fun.

Of course we had to get a family one, even though our clothes weren’t quite fancy enough for first class!
You have the option to purchase them in the gift shop at the end of the tour.

I was bummed when they took our whole ticket, because I love my scrapbooking, but then they gave us a replica boarding pass! How cool is this?

On the opposite side, there was a short bio on one of the actual passengers. It tells you their name, where they were going and some amusing factoids about them. Then at the end of the tour, you can check the names against the list of survivors. Chiara and I made it, but sadly Tony and Arthur perished.
The exhibit was pretty amazing. You could see all of these artifacts recovered from the ship. I think the most amazing for me was a postcard that you could still read and perfume bottles that still retained the smell of some essential oils. The letters and such that survived had been preserved because they had been contained in a leather satchel. Leather apparently was quite the protection against the ocean!

The kids really enjoyed this one! They had a miniature iceberg that was cold to the touch and everything! Giant ice cube towards the end of the exhibit was pretry darn cool. Pun intended!

Of course we had to hit the gift shop afterwards. We don’t have family days out very often, so when we do, we go big! I had to pick up one of the exhibit books because they don’t want you taking pictures of the exhibit. Normally, I say screw rules like that, but I have enough respect for the fact that these items survived to listen to the rule. Chiara wanted this cute little Captain Bear and Arthur insisted on the small pewter replica of the ship. The pewter replica is heavy and Arthur keeps playing with it. At least he won’t break it!
If you will be in Cleveland before the end of the exhibit run, I strongly recommend checking it out. It’s right next to the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame, so how can you lose?
Original pin and for more details about the exhibit, check out http://www.glsc.org/titanic/index.php