Taking Deep Dive Into History, Titanic Exhibition Docks At Old Orchard

SKOKIE, IL — The world's largest touring exhibit of artifacts and recreations of the Titanic is coming to Old Orchard Mall in Skokie.

Tickets are now on sale for Titanic: The Exhibition, which is slated to run from Feb. 16 to April 21 in Skokie following its sold-out runs in Macau, China; Moscow, Russia; Riga, Latvia; Perth, Australia and Los Angeles.

The "interactive experience" features stories of passengers on the sunken oceanliner, vast reconstructions of the interior of the ship and displays of items from the ship as well as James Cameron's 1997 film "Titanic."

The exhibit is produced by Imagine Exhibitions, the company behind traveling exhibitions based on Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, Angry Birds, Jurassic World and Downton Abbey, which this year came to the lower level of the former Old Orchard Bloomingdale's. The firm currently presents more than 40 exhibits at various locations around the world, according to its representatives.

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Tom Zaller, president and CEO of Imagine Exhibitions, said the exhibition is designed to immerse visitors in the history of the Titanic and bring its story to life through the use of recreated environments and media experiences.

“Titanic has been a part of my life since the late 90’s when I had the incredible opportunity to dive to the wreck site, and since that firsthand experience, I’ve presented hundreds of exhibitions about the ship, her people and her stories," Zaller said in a statement announcing the tour.

Guests each receive a "boarding pass" associated with a particular passenger on the ship, allowing them to follow that person's story and explore galleries with artifacts from the first, second and third classes of the ship.

The final galleries feature personal items, individual anecdotes and a tribute wall showing what happened to each passenger. In total, the exhibition boasts more than 300 artifacts from survivors of the Titanic and its sister ships.

Another gallery is dedicated to the discovery of the Titanic's wreckage site. It uses a raised glass floor to suggest walking on the ocean floor and bits of broken china in the sand, similar to what divers saw on visits to the Titanic site.

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“One of the first Titanic exhibitions I was a part of was in Chicago in 2000. Over 860,000 people came to that exhibition; so many, in fact, that we returned in 2002 by popular demand and another 450,000 people came to see it," Zaller said. "It’s been more than 20 years since I’ve presented a Titanic exhibition in the Chicagoland area and I’m extremely excited to be returning."

The latest exhibit includes a full-sized recreation of the Titanic's two-story grand staircase, a first-class hallway, third-class hallway and cabin, boiler room and its exterior deck.

There is also a virtual reality element to the exhibition, with the most up-to-date forensic research into the sinking.

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Tickets for the Titanic exhibition in Skokie range from under $20 for children under 12 to more than $53 for adult "platinum" tickets with fast-track entry, a souvenir photo, catalog and entry to the VR portion of the exhibition.

For the original Titanic, the least expensive, third-class ticket on voyage cost between $15 and $40 in 1912 dollars, which is the equivalent of $444 to $1,185 today.

"This story continues to fascinate people," Zaller said, "it's every man’s story — the story of hopes and dreams. "

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Related: Suburban Man Survived Earlier Voyage Of Imploded Titanic Submersible