News Release Archive
EDUCATION/CULTURE--New Titanic Exhibit Now Open
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Coinciding with the release of a blockbuster movie, the new
permanent exhibit TITANIC: The Unsinkable Ship & Halifax is now
open at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax.
The exhibit tells the story of the great ship's creation and
demise and draws out the key role Halifax played in the disaster.
Using 20 unique artifacts and dozens of photographs, some never
published or displayed before, the exhibit serves up the "real
thing" to the interested visitor. In one key scene of the movie,
a replica of an ornately carved wooden archway is featured. "You
can come to the Maritime Museum and see the actual piece of wood
from the real Titanic," said museum curator Dan Conlin.
The most impressive item in the exhibit is a deckchair -- the
only intact Titanic deckchair in the world -- which was presented
as a gift to the minister who performed many of the burials at
sea.
Although impressed with the movie, despite some minor
inaccuracies, Mr. Conlin is especially pleased with the museum's
Titanic exhibit.
"While her survivors went to New York, all her dead came to
Halifax and it is their graves here that will remain perhaps one
of the world's most lasting legacies of the tragedy."
Halifax crews braved awful conditions to recover the bodies and
invented a unique system to solve the mystery of the many
unidentified victims.
Many kept pieces of Titanic wreckage in their family for
generations, preserving wonderfully carved pieces of her woodwork
as they were found surrounded by bodies in 1912. It is some of
these unique pieces of woodwork, the personal stories of the
recovery ships' crews, and the stories of the victims who came to
be buried in Halifax that are the core of the exhibit.
Other highlights of the exhibit include:
- An almost life-size photo-enlargement of Titanic's grand
staircase surrounded by beautifully carved pieces of the actual
staircase, such as its balustrade and newel post.
- Gloves from one of her millionaire victims, George Hays,
president of the Grand Trunk Railway.
- A wireless log where a Nova Scotia shore-based wireless
operator wrote down Titanic's signals from striking the iceberg
to her abrupt end.
- A breathtakingly realistic model of Titanic's rust covered bow
as seen through the porthole of the submersible Alvin on Robert
Ballard's first dive to the deck of the submerged Titanic.
"The Maritime Museum wanted to provide the opportunity for the
public to cut through the myth surrounding what is considered by
many the world's most infamous maritime tragedy," said Mr.
Conlin. "By telling the story from the Nova Scotian perspective,
we think we have gone far to achieve that."
The exhibit TITANIC: The Unsinkable Ship & Halifax is a permanent
exhibit at the Maritime Museum. The museum is currently open
Tuesdays through Sundays. Although admission is free, donations
for the food bank are accepted in lieu. Phone 902-424-7490 for
specific hours.
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Contact: Gerry Lunn
Maritime Museum of the Atlantic
902-424-8793
E-mail: lunnge@gov.ns.ca
ngr Dec. 18, 1997 4:30 p.m.
