It’s the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the unsinkable ship, and to mark the occasion, the Houston Museum of Natural Science presents “Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition.” It was April 15, 1912, when the then-largest ship in the world struck an iceberg and sunk, taking some 1,500 lives and an assortment of valuables to the bottom of the sea. Now museum visitors can see more than 250 artifacts recovered from the ship’s debris site, such as still-fragrant perfume vials, partially filled champagne bottles, playing cards, eye glasses and a smoking pipe.
Visitors are transported back to the ship’s maiden voyage as they tour the exhibit. Replicas of actual boarding passes are issued to each visitor as they enter. The exhibit, arranged in chronological order, covers the ship’s construction and life on board, including a life-size replica of a First Class stateroom — which cost a whopping $2,500, or $57,200 in today’s currency — filled with a grand mahogany bed and rich draperies. There’s also a replica of a Third Class cabin filled with tidy bunk beds, and one of the captain’s deck. The exhibit closes with a giant wall of ice, a reminder of what stopped the Titanic.
9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays and Wednesdays through Sundays, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesdays. Through September 3. Houston Museum of Natural Science, 5555 Hermann Park. For information, call 713-639-4629 or visit www.hmns.org. $20 to $27.
Mondays, Wednesdays-Sundays, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.; Tuesdays, 9 a.m.-8 p.m. Starts: March 19. Continues through Aug. 28, 2012