COSI's Titanic exhibit showcases the "ship of dreams"

Those entering COSI's Titanic exhibit are handed a "ticket" representing someone on board that fateful voyage 112 years ago.

"What? I'm going to die?" a nearby kid exclaimed after learning their persona had a third-class ticket.

• My matches, a Polish immigrant and her son, had bottom-tier tickets too.
• That put our passengers equally far from the protected aristocracy that enjoyed top-shelf amenities and a clear path to a lifeboat.

Why it matters: The story of Titanic is familiar to us all, but the exhibit offers a unique, humanizing look at the tragedy via artifacts like tea cups and silverware dug up from the Atlantic deep.

Between the lines: The ship is apparently being slowly eroded by metal-eating bacteria and may collapse on itself within the next century.

• As Titanic conservator Stephane Pennec puts it in the exhibit, the recovery of these artifacts is a testament to "life's fragility and the human spirit's enduring strength."

Yes, but: Titanic is also a story of hubris.

• "I could not conceive of any vital disaster happening to this vessel … modern shipbuilding has gone far beyond that," Captain Edward J. Smith said, according to the exhibit.
• White Star Line, the ship's owner, felt the same. The company famously cut down the number of lifeboats to save space, and its workers were poorly trained to fill them in a rescue scenario.
• A breathtaking museum piece overlays a lifeboat outline on the ground, demonstrating how many people could have squeezed onto it.

As it turned out, my assigned passenger made it. Leah Rosen Aks is said to have lived a successful life after the tragedy, in Norfolk, Virginia, and died in 1967.

• The COSI experience ends with a wall displaying the names of over 1,500 other passengers who did not survive, before guests exit through a gift shop.

💭 Tyler's take: The exhibit is pricey, but the artifacts are truly fascinating and help put the historical events in perspective.

• However, I was a bit stunned to see all sorts of White Star Line-branded merch at the post-exhibit gift shop, from shirts and drink coasters to children's plush dolls.
• My matches, a Polish immigrant and her son, had bottom-tier tickets, too. Materialism over ethics … evidently, some of that remains.

If you go: 10am-5pm daily, through Sept. 2.

• Timed ticket bundles get you into both the museum and Titanic exhibit. $45 for guests 13 and up, $40 for children 2-12.

Columbus back in 1912

The year of the Titanic's sinking was a pivotal time in Columbus history.

Flashback: The city celebrated the centennial of its founding exactly two months before the ship struck the iceberg.

• It's also the year the Columbus Interurban Terminal opened on Third Street and the local Athletic Club was founded.
• OSU formed its first graduate program and was admitted to the Big Ten Conference (then known as the Western Conference).

1912 was also a big year in state politics.

• Officials gathered at the Statehouse for a Constitutional Convention, with former President Teddy Roosevelt as a guest speaker.
• Ohioans gained the ability to propose citizen-initiated amendments to the state constitution — and still exercise that right on issues like abortion and redistricting.
• President William Howard Taft, a native Ohioan, lost the state and his presidential re-election campaign in November.