T
Tarn Stephanos
Member
Anyone here who worked or voluntered at past (or present) Titanic Artifact Exhibitions? What have been your most cherished memories of the experince?
For me, it was the arrival of the BiG Piece in Boston, the sounding of the whistles in St. Paul, and meeting the descendants of the passengers and crew in all the cities. Many came in with photos of those Titanic passengers and crew which to this day have never been published, and shared subtle nuances about the personalities of their Titanic relatives, details unrealated authors would know nothing about.
My least favorite memory had to do with the Toronto exhibit- it was near Christmas, and some folks from Newfoundland dropped by, saying they had a huge quantity of what their grandfather claimed was Titanic wreckwood.I had left for Christmas holiday the day before.
They talked to a chap who who was in charge of renting out the audio narrative headsets, which for him was just a job. The fellow was not a Titanic buff, nor one of my staff members.
Im told he was given their name and number, and he lost both and didnt tell me about the inscident until weeks later. He related to me pieces of wood they had with them were big, though 'broken', and so he presumed them worthless, and told them as such.
This chap certainly wasnt one of my staff members...I wanted to strangle him..He never understood why i was so upset.
Those folks came by the one day we were really understaffed- they never had called ahead, they just popped by. As we were days from Christmas, as as we had few visitors to the Toronto exhibit, we had a skeleton crew for the 3 days preceeded the holiday.
Anyway, we never heard back from those folks with the wood, and despite my efforts trying to go through Newfoundland phone books to track them down , we found nothing...To this day i cringe thinking- If I had left home for Christmas on the 23rd, rather than 24th, this tragedy would have been avoided.
Who knows, since then, mabey those folks gave their things to the Museum Of the Atlantic, or mabey they put the wood back into their attic..
Talk about the one that got away.......
SOO, My advice to anyone working at a Titanic exhibit- make it very clear if someone walks through the door with Titanic wreckwood or photos of the ship, there is a person with whom they can speak- if that person is not available, take a message!!!! Make such clear to all departments, from the gift shop to security to maitenence. It sounds obvious, but sometimes the obvious becomes the elusive for some folks.
Toronto was the exhibit where SFX basically opted not to invest in advertising,(focus was on Las Vegas) and few people came. Its a pity, as I found folks in Toronto to be very hip, very interested in Titanic, and they only complaint about the exhibit was that they didnt know it existed, and would have appreciated some more aggressive advertising. I think many of the staff were disgruntled by this...Even still, working around the artifacts was a big honor, and Toronto a very beautiful city.We had one true Titanic buff on staff- Jason Tiller, who is a postee on this board. I wished we had a crew of Jasons in Toronto.
Somthing interesting occoured at the Boston exhibit- An elderly man who's family lived next to Harold Bride said Bride used to shoo away the children when they wandered too close to his land. Bride was apparently a very private person in his later years. Overall the exhibits were an amazing time.
Volunteer if it comes to your town. I miss those days, and will return only when order and sanity returns to the equation...
The hardest part about staffing a a floor crew (narrators, tour guides)for past Titanic exhibits is finding a crew who actually were Titanic buffs. Titanic buffs were very hard to find. I suppose as most had 'real jobs', and were only available on weekends. But the Titanic buffs we found who could work were dedicated, and hardcore. We had a great crew of Titanic buffs in Boston and Dallas. Which exhibits were the best? Im keen on Boston, as its my hometown, my first exhibit, and the place where Titanic finished the maiden Voyage in the form of the Big Piece....
Dallas was my 2nd favorite, as we had such a motivated staff, most of which were hardcore titanic buffs, and massive turnout of the crowd. It being my fifth and last exhibit, it certainly ended the ride on a high note....
So volunteer, and work around the pieces of history, make your dreams come true...
Many regards
Tarn Stephanos
For me, it was the arrival of the BiG Piece in Boston, the sounding of the whistles in St. Paul, and meeting the descendants of the passengers and crew in all the cities. Many came in with photos of those Titanic passengers and crew which to this day have never been published, and shared subtle nuances about the personalities of their Titanic relatives, details unrealated authors would know nothing about.
My least favorite memory had to do with the Toronto exhibit- it was near Christmas, and some folks from Newfoundland dropped by, saying they had a huge quantity of what their grandfather claimed was Titanic wreckwood.I had left for Christmas holiday the day before.
They talked to a chap who who was in charge of renting out the audio narrative headsets, which for him was just a job. The fellow was not a Titanic buff, nor one of my staff members.
Im told he was given their name and number, and he lost both and didnt tell me about the inscident until weeks later. He related to me pieces of wood they had with them were big, though 'broken', and so he presumed them worthless, and told them as such.
This chap certainly wasnt one of my staff members...I wanted to strangle him..He never understood why i was so upset.
Those folks came by the one day we were really understaffed- they never had called ahead, they just popped by. As we were days from Christmas, as as we had few visitors to the Toronto exhibit, we had a skeleton crew for the 3 days preceeded the holiday.
Anyway, we never heard back from those folks with the wood, and despite my efforts trying to go through Newfoundland phone books to track them down , we found nothing...To this day i cringe thinking- If I had left home for Christmas on the 23rd, rather than 24th, this tragedy would have been avoided.
Who knows, since then, mabey those folks gave their things to the Museum Of the Atlantic, or mabey they put the wood back into their attic..
Talk about the one that got away.......
SOO, My advice to anyone working at a Titanic exhibit- make it very clear if someone walks through the door with Titanic wreckwood or photos of the ship, there is a person with whom they can speak- if that person is not available, take a message!!!! Make such clear to all departments, from the gift shop to security to maitenence. It sounds obvious, but sometimes the obvious becomes the elusive for some folks.
Toronto was the exhibit where SFX basically opted not to invest in advertising,(focus was on Las Vegas) and few people came. Its a pity, as I found folks in Toronto to be very hip, very interested in Titanic, and they only complaint about the exhibit was that they didnt know it existed, and would have appreciated some more aggressive advertising. I think many of the staff were disgruntled by this...Even still, working around the artifacts was a big honor, and Toronto a very beautiful city.We had one true Titanic buff on staff- Jason Tiller, who is a postee on this board. I wished we had a crew of Jasons in Toronto.
Somthing interesting occoured at the Boston exhibit- An elderly man who's family lived next to Harold Bride said Bride used to shoo away the children when they wandered too close to his land. Bride was apparently a very private person in his later years. Overall the exhibits were an amazing time.
Volunteer if it comes to your town. I miss those days, and will return only when order and sanity returns to the equation...
The hardest part about staffing a a floor crew (narrators, tour guides)for past Titanic exhibits is finding a crew who actually were Titanic buffs. Titanic buffs were very hard to find. I suppose as most had 'real jobs', and were only available on weekends. But the Titanic buffs we found who could work were dedicated, and hardcore. We had a great crew of Titanic buffs in Boston and Dallas. Which exhibits were the best? Im keen on Boston, as its my hometown, my first exhibit, and the place where Titanic finished the maiden Voyage in the form of the Big Piece....
Dallas was my 2nd favorite, as we had such a motivated staff, most of which were hardcore titanic buffs, and massive turnout of the crowd. It being my fifth and last exhibit, it certainly ended the ride on a high note....
So volunteer, and work around the pieces of history, make your dreams come true...
Many regards
Tarn Stephanos
