COLUMBUS, Ohio — Guests at Columbus' Center of Science and Industry (COSI) can get an experience of the Titanic without going to sea.

What You Need To Know

  • The Titanic Artifact Exhibition is being hosted by COSI until Sept. 2

  • The exhibit contains about 160 artifacts from the RMS Titanic wreck site

  • Visitors start the exhibit as a passenger with a boarding ticket, go through an experience of what it would be like to ride the RMS Titanic in 1912 and then end the exhibit either as a survivor or someone who didn't survive the shipwreck

“It’s impactful when you get to learn the name of a passenger. So part of what we're trying to do is connect people to this content and to the story of Titanic's passengers and crew,” said Jessica Sanders, president of RMS Titanic Inc.

With real objects and real stories, visitors take a boarding pass and explore the RMS Titanic as if they were passengers in 1912. They can also view artifacts from more than 100 years ago from the RMS Titanic. 

“We've done eight expeditions to the wreck site, and we've recovered artifacts in seven of those,” Sanders said.

There are about 160 artifacts in this exhibit, Sanders said, but her group has recovered thousands more from the wreck site. 

“We've recovered about 5,500 artifacts over the course of those expeditions, starting back all the way to 1987,” said Sanders. 

The exhibit not only includes artifacts from the ship but also boasts full-scale room recreations, pictures of passengers scattered throughout the exhibit, a full-scale reproduction of the grand staircase and the iceberg that led to the ship's demise. The group created full scale replicas to help spark imagination and intrigue of what the ship was really like. 

“So if you can imagine not just the movie, but actual people, actual passengers in their finest coming down the grand staircase and waiting to be seen by, you know, by the social elite at the time, the richest of the rich, you know, and having that moment. But not a movie, a real story," Sanders said. "That's what the goal is here."

Josh Sarver, chief experience and operations officer of COSI, said this is exhibit is one of its most popular, and people of all ages enjoy it. 

“The topic is just a evergreen topic and people love it. You know, young, to old," Sarver said. They really are interested in this experience. So individuals have been coming to COSI for years want to bring back their families as well to see something that they have seen."

Visitors start the exhibit as a passenger by boarding the ship and then leave the exhibit either as a survivor or as someone who did not survive the shipwreck. Sanders said they do this to leave a profound feeling of empathy in visitors and in an effort to tell the story of at least one traveler from 1912. 

“If you go home and you hugged your loved ones a little bit closer, if you remember the name of one passenger, then we've done something,” Sanders said.