Titanic Exhibit Opening Next Week At Volo Museum

VOLO, IL — The period clothing. The luxury automobiles. The travel gear and lore that puts a visitor at history’s helm.

The Volo Museum, located at 27582 Volo Village Road, will be opening a new exhibit, "A Tribute to the Tragedy," which is focused on the Titanic, on April 14, according to a news release.

“It’s been 111 years since the Titanic was gashed by an iceberg in the North Atlantic and sank. But the public’s fascination with this tragedy — with the stories of the people who perished and those who survived — never diminishes,” said Greg Grams, founder of the Volo Museum and the man behind “A Tribute to the Tragedy.”

The exhibit took more than a year to develop and cost about $5 million, he said.

“This has been a labor of love, and a quest to find answers to a lot of the questions I had about how it all unfolded. I’m extremely proud of how it’s turned out," Grams said.

Touted as unsinkable, the luxury liner was on its maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York when it struck the fateful iceberg at 11:40 p.m. April 14, 1912.

By 2:24 a.m. April 15, 1912, the ship had broken in two, both parts resting at the bottom of the ocean. Of 2,240 passengers and crew aboard, 706 survived, according to History.com.

The Titanic has been the subject of countless books and numerous films, including, of course, the 1997 James Cameron epic featuring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet.

Visitors to the Volo Museum’s new exhibit will find the vehicle from which the two stars’ infamous onboard dalliance car was fashioned — a 1912 Renault.

“The exhibit’s is one of only two of the touring models ever made, the other of which went down with the ship,” said Jim Wojdyla, marketing director for the museum.

Also among Titanic-era vehicles in the display is a 1912 Delaunay-Belleville once owned by Evalyn McLean, who also possessed the famous Hope Diamond, on which Rose’s Heart of the Ocean necklace is based in the Cameron film.

“Each one of the cars included in this exhibit is extremely rare and valuable,” Wojdyla said.

The exhibit itself also is rare — one of only a handful in the United States that is devoted to Titanic lore.

On the way into the exhibit, which will feature a separate entrance and separate admission, a ship’s bow is under construction. Inside, several examples of genuine period attire show the type of clothing that first-, second- and third-class passengers might have worn aboard ship.

Well-researched story boards line the walls, each relating a brief narrative of a passenger or a facet of the tragedy’s timeline. A tribute to the musicians is here, as is a recreation of the ship’s bridge.

Among interactive parts of the display, a trio of inclines indicate the terrifying grade of the ship’s slanting deck at various times as Titanic sank. Another offers a chance to dip a finger into 28-degree saltwater — the temperature of the North Atlantic as the ship disappeared into the sea.

There’s even a White Star Line life vest positioned next to one from the Cameron film, as well as a small theater where visitors can watch a 9-minute reel about people who were on board.

“These families who were on the ship had less than three hours to, in many cases, say their goodbyes,” Wojdyla said. “We wanted to present an exhibit that pays respectful tribute."

Admission to the Titanic exhibit will be $14.95 for those ages 5 years old and older. Entry will be metered, with only 30 people allowed in per hour, so tickets will be date- and time-specific.

More information about the exhibit, and other exhibits, is available on the Volo Museum website.