An exhibition in Dallas is drawing crowds this week as many kids are on spring break. "Titanic: The Exhibition" takes families through exhibits in chronological order starting with the decision by two companies to build the ship.
White Star Line and Harland & Wolff partnered on the Titanic's construction after a competing company started making trips across the Atlantic faster and in more modern ships.
"It is a tragedy in the end, but it started out as such a hopeful story, such an exciting story," says Titanic: The Exhibition Creative Producer Mark Lach. "The rich and famous were on board the largest ship in the world; simple immigrants with everything they ever had in a simple leather bag hoping to sail by the Statue of Liberty."
To mark St. Patrick's Day this week, organizers of the exhibition had Irish bands, bagpipers and dancers performing. Titanic was built in Belfast, Ireland; Lach says 15,000 Irish laborers built the ship, and hundreds of others were among those on board.
At the beginning of the exhibition, each person receives a boarding pass with the name of a passenger who was on board.
"As you make your way through the exhibition, that passenger, his name or her name, the class they traveled in and their story starts to connect," Lach says.
People see 16 galleries and 350 artifacts, including postcards sent before Titanic left its last port. Visitors can also see clothes worn by passengers and crew as well as objects recovered from the ship and recreations of parts of the ship.
"It's very experiential," Lach says. "You feel like you're on the Titanic. We've got a full-scale recreation of the grand staircase, of a first class parlor suite. You'll go down to third class. You'll remember in the movie when Jack says to Rose, 'You want to go to a real party? The real party's inside, down in third class.'"
"I learned more about what the classes were like, especially third class. It was way worse than I imagined," one boy who had come with his family says.
"It was a very good experience for us," his mom says.
Exhibits near the end show the timeline of events leading up to Titanic hitting the iceberg, starting with warnings from other ships about "bergs, growlers and field ice" 14 hours earlier.
"Still, Captain [Edward] Smith was not concerned and maintained full speed," one exhibit reads.
People can then read the Titanic's final transmissions.
As they leave, they can leave handprints in a recreated iceberg and look at a passenger list to see whether the person on their boarding pass lived or died.
"It was kind of shocking for him because we were all three women, and he was one of the men and didn't survive," the mom says. She had come with her son and two daughters.
"I got first class, though," her son said. "At least I had that."
Titanic: The Exhibition is located at 14902 Preston Road #386 in Dallas. Ticket prices and availability are available here.
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