By Siena Oliver, ’27

News Editor

Titanic: the Artifact Exhibition showcases authentic items recovered from the doomed ship, the stories behind those objects, full-scale replicas of different parts of the ship, and even an interactive element. Members of The Hawk staff attended a special preview of the exhibit sponsored by Headliners in Education, a nonprofit devoted to student journalism.

One of the largest ships built in its time, the Titanic was deemed unsinkable until it struck an iceberg on its first trip from England to New York City and sank in the icy Atlantic on April 15, 1912. More than 1,500 of the estimated 2,220 passengers and crew died.

Upon arrival, participants of the self-guided tour were assigned paper boarding passes that gave information on a real Titanic passenger; at the end of the tour, the passenger’s fate was revealed. Throughout the tour, visitors strolled past glass cases filled with real items lost in the tragedy, from money to clothing to parts of the vessel itself. Detailed descriptions explained the artifact, who it belonged to and when it was brought by divers from the ocean depths. On the walls, plaques detailed the lives of different passengers and described varied aspects of the voyage of the Titanic.

In addition to the artifacts, there were recreations of the Titanic’s opulent first-class room and cramped third-class cabin as well as one of its majestic grand staircases. Video screens provided footage of diving expeditions and more detail on the pain-staking preservation of the artifacts. A chilled model iceberg allowed visitors to feel the water temperature that escaping passengers would have encountered when the ship went down.

Below is a photo gallery showcasing pictures of the exhibition taken by Hawk editors Siena Oliver, Emily Davis, and Sam Frattasio. For more information on the exhibit, which runs at the Castle Park Plaza in Boston through June 1 before travelling to other cities, visit its website.

Featured image: The sinking of the Titanic depicted in Untergang der Titanic (translation: “Sinking of the Titanic”), a 1912 illustration by Willy Stöwer