Sunken Treasure

Photo By: Dirk Fletcher

by Lori Hill

On June 18, awestruck Franklin Institute staffers and passersby watched as a prop lifeboat from the 1997 movie Titanic was hoisted by crane into the building. Slowly the dinghy was raised into the third-story window of the Mandell Center, kicking off the spectacle that will surely be "Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition."

People have been fascinated with the ship since it sank to its final resting place two and a half miles below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean in 1912. RMS Titanic has plunged to the wreck site over the years to salvage some of its remains. After dusting off all the salt and rust, RMS then trots out the artifacts for traveling exhibits.

The Franklin Institute plays host to a display of jewelry (including a necklace with heart-shaped pendant, shown), clothing, musical instruments, games and other personal artifacts. Visitors will be given a "boarding pass" with a real passenger's name, then will proceed through re-creations of first- and third-class rooms and read about the recovery efforts, as well as Philadelphia-specific stories. While some of the interactive elements of the show are somewhat ghoulish (Press your palms against an "iceberg" to feel what it was like for passengers tossed into the frigid waters! Did the person whose boarding pass you're holding survive??), they certainly fit the Institute's educational mission.

Sometimes overlooked (if rightfully so, given the loss of 1,500 lives) is the fact that the ship was one of grandest and most expensive endeavors in shipping history. One of the centerpieces of the show is the re-creation of the Grand Staircase, complete with ornate oak balustrades, but there are also furnishings in luxurious Louis XIV and Georgian styles, all of which were intended for the pleasure of its wealthy first-class passengers. (We're guessing steerage class, where Leo's Jack Dawson jigged his way to Kate's heart, wasn't much to look at.) Also part of the festivities is the IMAX film Titanica, set to screen throughout the run of the exhibition.

"Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition," July 10, 2004-Jan. 2, 2005, $10-$22.75 (not including audio tour or IMAX movie), The Franklin Institute, 20th St. and the Parkway, 215-448-1200.

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