‘TITANIC: The Artifact Exhibition’ is now open at the Carnegie Science Center

All photos by Becky Thurner via Carnegie Science Center.

When you step into “TITANIC: The Artifact Exhibition” at the Carnegie Science Center, you’ll feel like one of the passengers boarding the ship — getting your own replica boarding pass for the voyage and assuming the role of an actual passenger, feeling the excitement and anticipation for the maiden voyage of the largest ship ever built at the time.

From there, the journey unfolds as you see artifacts salvaged from the wreckage at the bottom of the ocean and gain a better understanding of what it was like for the passengers and crew on board this tragic trip.

This exhibit, viewed by more than 30 million people around the world, is making a stop in Pittsburgh through April 15, which is the 112th year since the ship sank in the North Atlantic.

“This is an incredible exhibit. This is our seventh exhibit here, and this is the one that I felt the most personal connection to — not because I have any personal connection to the Titanic, but it really is… you really feel the empathy for the people,” said Jason Brown, Henry Buhl Jr. Director of the Carnegie Science Center. “It is hard to put yourself in the situation that they were in and imagine what it would be like, but going through this exhibition really takes you back and puts you in that situation.”

You’ll get to feel how cold the water was on the fateful night through a simulated iceberg cooled to the same temperature and see recreated full-scale rooms from the ship with artifacts from the wreck site including a telegraph mechanism, perfume vials, playing cards, and exquisite passenger jewelry.

James Penca, a Titanic historian, says he is most impressed by a unique pair of passenger shoes.

“One of the highlights for me, an artifact I have never actually seen in person, is a pair of shoes purchased by a 17-year-old passenger named Edgar Andrew – really nice shoes to wear to a special occasion that sat on the ocean floor for 88 years in a suitcase.”

Click here for details on times and to purchase tickets.