A traveling exhibit featuring items from a very famous sunken ship is coming to northeast Iowa next year. Directors of the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium in Dubuque have revealed plans to host “Titanic: the Artifact Exhibition” from May 23rd through September 7th, 2015.
Museum president Jerry Enzler told KCRG-TV that the exhibit is extremely popular. “In some areas where it is shown, they had not only timed and ticketed entry, but they had to actually extend well into the night to accommodate all the visitors who come to see this,” Enzler said. The Titanic, a British passenger liner bound for New York City on its maiden voyage, sank in the Atlantic Ocean in April 1912 after hitting an iceberg.
More than 1,500 of the ship’s 2,224 passengers and crew were killed. The exhibit could have as much as a $2 million economic impact in Dubuque, according to Enzler. Michael Sanders is the museum’s executive director. “The exhibit shows the disparity between what was a first class experience and what was a third class experience. It was a very different thing on the Titanic. So, it touches on a lot of that,” Sanders said.
The exhibit will take up the entire second floor of the museum, where staff will charge an extra fee to get into the exhibit. Directors say they haven’t yet set that price.
By Katie Wiedemann, KCRG-TV