I was in 6th grade when the wreckage of the Titanic was discovered, and I remember it vividly. The story of the ship, the poor planning and all the lives lost has always held an allure for me. Yes, I watched the movie…admittedly more than once. So, imagine my surprise when I found out that the Titanic would be in Denver! I was even more surprised to find out that the traveling museum exhibit was free to the public!
Claire and I were fortunate enough to get VIP Treatment the opening day, so we couldn’t wait to check it out!
If you’re in the Denver area and know where FlatIrons Mall is, the Titanic Exhibit is located back behind the mall, by the Nordstrom entrance. Once you get back to that side of the mall, you can’t miss it.
We were greeted by the helpful staff, and we were each given a boarding pass to the Titanic. I was Mrs. John G. Sage (Annie Elizabeth to her close friends). Claire was Mr. Edgar Samuel Andrew. After receiving our boarding passes, we were able to have our photo taken in front of The Grand Staircase. In about 48-hours, our photos will be up for viewing online, and we can’t wait to see them!
Then, we were able to go explore the exhibit. It’s a typical museum display in that the artifacts are concealed in thick clear cases, but even Claire enjoyed seeing the different items. Because she’s only 3-years old, she didn’t understand the gravity of the situation, and why these things are on display, but she thought it was interesting. She really liked the boiler room with its red lighting, and the room where they were showing the Discovery Channel images of the Titanic and the large digital display of the iceberg.
All throughout the exhibit are placards telling the stories of some of the people on board. Some of their stories had happy endings, and some didn’t.
On nearly every wall, there are facts about the ship and what happened. Seeing this information in black and white about the Titanic and that fateful journey in April of 1912 just reiterated the fact that they didn’t have a chance. They were ill-prepared, over-confident, and ultimately doomed. Granted hind-sight is always 20/20, but the outcome saddens me.
Seeing this with my child put a whole new spin on it that I wasn’t expecting. She had a ton of questions about everything, like she always does, and we’ve never hidden the issue of death from her, but when I got to the story of the woman who had her baby ripped from her arms and tossed into a lifeboat, only to be on a different life boat and not know if he was alive, I got tears in my eyes. They were eventually reunited, but the story was so touching.
It’s these stories that make the exhibit real.
The Titanic wasn’t just a ship that sank. It wasn’t just a compilation of errors that ended tragically. 2,228 lives were forever changed that day. 705 survived. 1,523 did not.
It really makes me sit back and think about the things that are most important to me.
When we got to the end of the display, we were faced with a wall of names: those who had lived and those who hadn’t. We had the opportunity to see how our character fared, the character we were randomly given when we boarded the Titanic. Sadly, my character didn’t live. Her whole family perished as well. Claire’s character didn’t live either, but she told me that was okay, because her name wasn’t really Edgar. (It takes a preschooler to bring some levity to this whole thing, doesn’t it?)
After we learned our fate, we had the opportunity to get our photo taken with Captain Smith!
The two of us with Captain Smith. He went down with the ship as well.
So, I’m bummed that Claire and I died on the Titanic, but I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the artifacts, some of which have never been seen in public before! And, it was really funny to watch people come out of the exhibit and exclaim, “I lived!” 
If you get a chance, you should check out this exhibit. It’s going to be at FlatIrons Mall until April 26th, and then it moves to Park Meadows Mall, where it will be from April 30th until May 3rd.
Not in this area? Click here to see when it visits a city near you!
It’s free, and who knows, maybe you’ll be luckier than we were, and survive!
Stupid lifeboats.
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That sounds like something Lauren would totally love. We will have to check it out! Any thoughts on non-busy times?
I’m near Park Meadows! Missed the international Titanic museum exhibition when it came to St. Petersburg, FL while I lived there, so thanks for posting this. (Found your post through Amber’s retweet)
I’m fascinated by the whole Titanic legend, too. Some of the older Titanic movies are wonderful. The last one was just pathetic as far as being true to the legend and/or being historically acurate goes. Halifax, Nova Scotia has a big connection to Titanic, so when I lived there I was able to visit the permanent display at the Maritime Museum many times and see the Titanic artifacts. There is a also a cemetary with a Titantic section where many of the bodies fished out of the ocean are buried – some without any further identification other than “infant” or “young woman”. There is a “J. Dawson”, so of course after the movie, hundreds of people flocked to Halifax to put flowers and teddy bears and other junk on this J Dawson’s grave. They pretty much destroyed the cemetary and it had to be closed for a while and have major repairs done. People are weird. The Jack Dawson of the movie was completely fictional. The J. Dawson buried in Halifax could just as easily be a woman. Anyway, if you haven’t seen A Night to Remember – you should check it out.
I have always been fascinated by the Titanic and its tragic story. I have seen 2 different exhibitions and I am almost tempted to go to this one just for the picture in front of the stair case. I might just have to go Saturday! Thanks Momma for the post!
So neat! That exhibit was in Vegas when Nick and I were there, we nearly went but didn’t end up making it. I wish we would have.
On a different note, everytime I watch that movie, I cross my fingers and hope that it will turn out differently even though I know it won’t.
What a great post, it really puts things in prospective. Thank goodness for kids and their point of view. I love the Titanic, its lore, story and movie.
I visited the Titanic Exhibit when it was in town the year before last. It was amazing how they designed it, the way the music and lighting changes as you pass from room to room and how these little artistic differences effect everyone in the exhibit. By the time we got to the room with the slab of ice you could here a pin drop. The overwhelming reality of this tragedy still impacts people of all ages and backgrounds almost 100 years later. I would definitely go again.
Terra, I’m not sure what to tell you about the busy times. It wasn’t too busy when we got there on Thursday around 11:30, but by the time we left, there was a longer line…
Thanks, Amy! You’ll have to check it out!
XUP, I don’t think I’ve seen that! I’ll have to check it out.
Thanks, Jess! I think Heath would get a kick out of it.
Lindz, I get chills just thinking about some of the special effects in that movie!
Thanks, Lisa!
Barstow, it is amazing to see. I can only imagine what those people went through!
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