The Titanic...Today

Today, We went to the Denver Museum of Nature & Science to see the Titanic: The Artifacts Exhibition. We LOVED it! It was so amazing and I was sad they did not allow photography while touring the exhibit. Makes sense why you have to pay to see it! :) It cost $40 to get in and it was definitely well worth it! After we bought our tickets we had to stand in line to receive our "Boarding passes" to enter into the Titanic exhibit. The "Boarding passes" were NOT fictional. They have names of actual passengers aboard the Titanic, explaining why they were traveling, if they were accompanied by anyone, their age, where they were sailing from, their class and a passenger fact about them. At the end of the exhibit you can look on the wall of all the passenger names who were aboard the Titanic and see if the person on your boarding pass survived or not. 2 out of the 3 passengers we were given information about were saved. 705 people saved, 1,523 lost. It said there that most people did not drown, but died of hypothermia.

The exhibit said that the Titanic sat below the ocean at approximately 12, 500ft and it was 6,000 lbs per square inch of water pressure. The Titanic went down in April 1912 and sat on the ocean floor for 73 years, until it was discovered on September 1, 1985. I was AMAZED at all the items in the exhibit. We thought the preservation of the artifacts is just phenomenal. They had signs on the walls telling about how they clean and preserve all the items they have found in the Titanic. They do an amazing job. I especially enjoyed seeing all the money and coins they had found in Titanic. All the bills were US dollars and so big. I can't imagine having to carry such big bills around in a wallet today. The Artifacts that they had in the exhibit, were shoe cleaning brushes, china dishes (i was amazed that 1st class, 2nd class and 3rd class passengers all had different china and ceramic dishes that they ate off of while aboard), 2 big pots, silver tray (tarnished to a turquoise), curling iron heater, hairbrushes and hand mirrors, keys, a leather suitcase, eyeglasses, perfume bottles, Gillette razors and their wrappers, sinks, ceramic jars of toothpaste and shaving cream, shaving brushes, pieces of tile from the floors in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd class, passenger's clothes!, 18 carat gold mesh coin purses, diamond tie clasps (they were gorgeous and so sparkly!) , silver necklaces, a piece of the Hull it was 2 tons and it was cut off of a piece that was 15 tons that they couldn't bring up, there was also a piece of the Titanic you could touch. I touched the Titanic! Isn't that incredible!?!! They had the listings of what the passengers paid for their tickets to board the Titanic back in 1912. It said 3rd class passengers tickets were $35, which is equal to $620 today, 1st class was $4500, equal to $78,000 today and $25oo for 2nd class and equally $38,000 today. Wow. I really appreciated looking at the artifacts in the exhibit, because seeing passenger's actual belongings they had on the ship made the reality of the Titanic tragedy so REAL to me. I also thought it was interesting they had a luggage ticket preserved that said on the bottom of it "NOT WANTED". The passengers had all their luggage ticketed to wanted and not wanted. The luggage ticketed, "wanted" they stored in the passenger's cabins and the luggage ticketed, "not wanted" was stored below the ship in the cargo hold. We really enjoyed seeing all the artifacts that have been recovered and preserved from the Titanic. It is amazing to see the passenger's belongings, it really makes the history of the Titanic and it's passengers, a reality for people today. We both loved seeing the 2-ton hull they had hanging and I loved it that they had a piece of the Titanic to touch. I think it is so incredible. It sat on the bottom of the ocean floor for 73 years until it was finally discovered. I really appreciate American History and it was just an awesome exhibit. We LOVED it!