Titanic- Comes to Phila

Fri Apr 13 - Mon Dec 31

LOCATION:Independence Seaport Museum :: map TIME:12:00 am CONTACT:215.413.8655 http://www.phillyseaport.org

True stories, real people, 100 years later

Exhibit dates: April 13 – December 31, 2012

Titanic Philadelphians spotlights the personal lives of the Philadelphians directly affected by the ship disaster. The intimate exhibit is told through the accounts and stories of the 40 plus Philadelphians that sailed on the Titanic during her maiden voyage.

At the center of the exhibit is the Titanic first class passenger list, one of only a few copies known to still exist from the ship. The first class passenger list, along with other Titanic and ocean liner ephemera, was donated by the Thayer family of Philadelphia. John Borland Thayer, Marian Longstreth Thayer, and John (Jack) Thayer Jr., were passengers aboard the Titanic. During the evacuation of the ship Mrs. Thayer unknowingly carried the passenger list in her coat pocket onto Lifeboat 4 and the list remained in the family until it was donated in 1989. Due to the Thayer’s connection with the passenger list and the depth of their family’s story, a part of the exhibit will be centering solely on the Thayer story.

Visitors to the exhibit will explore the lives of Philadelphians that were traveling in the first, second and third classes of the Titanic and will come away with an understanding of how a disaster in the North Atlantic Ocean caused so much pain and grief in a city so far away. Titanic Philadelphians coincides with the centennial of the disaster.

April 14: Titanic Day
To celebrate the opening of our exhibit Titanic Philadelphians, the Museum will be showing the movie "A Night to Remember" in our concert hall all day long. A special Titanic themed Seafarin' Saturday features an interactive lesson about buoyancy called "What Floats Your Boat." From 1:00 -3:00 pm kids can make a boat out of tin foil and see how many pennies they can put in it before it sinks.

Starting Saturday April 14th and occurring every Saturday through Memorial Day, visitors can take a behind the scenes, Titanic-themed tour of the Olympia. Olympia’s triple expansion steam engines are very similar to the engines on the Titanic- in fact they are one of the finest remaining examples of the technology of the day. During this special guided tour visitors will learn about Titanic’s design (and design flaws) and what it would have been like to work in Titanic’s engine room. The hour-long tours are $15 (includes museum admission) and will run at noon, 2pm and 4 pm. Children must be 12 and up due to the steep stairs to the engine room. This tour is also available anytime for groups (limit of 17 per group) who reserve in advance.