Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition

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A 3,000 pound piece of one of history's best known stories recently arrived at the Science Museum of Minnesota.

It came to Saint Paul on a special flatbed truck. Then museum crews had to rent a heavy-duty fork lift to move it.

"We've never had anything heavier," said Ethan Lebovics, the museum's special exhibits installations manager. "We're looking forward to installing it."

Crews used chains to hang it from scaffolding - after they found a section of the museum floor sturdy enough not to collapse under the weight of 1.5 tons.

Then they unveiled it: A piece of the hull from the Titanic.

It's an artifact from the bottom of the ocean that helps explain why the famous ship went down. And it's part of the Science Museum's Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition, which opens Friday, June 12, to the public.

"You actually get to see the way the rivets were put in to hold those hull plates together," said Mike Day, a senior vice president at the Science Museum.

"The original popular theory was that the steel on the hull plates was brittle, and so it shattered when it hit the iceberg. But the more popular theory now is that the rivets that held those plates together were actually made from an inferior iron," Day said.

The piece of the Titanic on display at the museum did not actually come in contact with that iceberg, 97 years ago, in the North Atlantic Ocean. But it shows visitors how the ship's hull was bolted together and might have come apart.

"As the iceberg pushed against the side of the ship, the heads of the rivets popped off," Day explained. "And they don't think it was one big gash that opened on the side of the Titanic, but there were actually a series of spots where the hull plates un-zippered, (and) the connections came apart."

The piece of hull is just one part of the exhibit.

"What we've tried to do here is, we've really tried to humanize that story," Day said.

In all, there will be 250 artifacts on display, including luggage found 2.5 miles under the ocean's surface, hand tools, and a stopwatch belonging to one of the 1,523 passengers who died.

"Edith Brown kept her father's pocketwatch on her bed stand until the day she died, at the age of 100," Day said. "And then, she willed it back to the people who discovered it."

Some of those stories will be told by actors playing Titanic crew members, and they'll be stationed throughout the exhibit.

Also, for the first time ever, visitors will be able to see artifacts from the Carpathia, the ship that carried the Titanic's 705 survivors to New York.

The exhibit will cover 14,000 square feet, making it the largest exhibit in the museum's history.

"Incredible people, and the diversity of those people and their lives, and how those lives were affected by this tragedy - I think that's the thing that really endears us to this story and keeps this story so interesting," Day said.

Those stories, told by actors, artifacts and steel, will be at the Science Museum through Jan. 3, 2010.

Tickets cost $23 for adults and $18 for kids and seniors.

For more information CLICK HERE or call 651-221-9444.

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