Inside TITANIC: THE ARTIFACT EXHIBITION, Now Docked in Toronto

The legacy of Titanic isn’t just etched in maritime history — it’s alive in steel, letters, and artifacts, preserved and presented with reverence at Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition, now open for a limited time in Toronto.

SWAGGER attended an exclusive media preview and sat down with Tomasina Ray, President and Director of Collections at RMS Titanic Inc., the only company legally authorized to recover artifacts from the world’s most famous shipwreck. In addition to five touring sets that travel globally, the company also operates permanent exhibitions in Las Vegas and Orlando.

A Global Legacy Docked in Toronto

Toronto’s iteration of the exhibit offers a rare opportunity: not only can visitors walk through true-to-scale recreations of Titanic’s opulent staterooms, but for the first time, they can physically touch a genuine piece of the ship’s hull.

This “touch piece,” as Ray calls it, is a fragment of what was once part of the famous “Big Piece”, the largest section of Titanic ever recovered. Separated for safety reasons, this piece is now one of the only parts of the ship that visitors anywhere in the world are permitted to touch.

“You can actually feel the steel,” she explained. “It’s not quite smooth. You can see how part of it thins out. It tells its own story of deterioration and time.”

A Story Told in Artifacts 

The Toronto collection includes over 200 items recovered by RMS Titanic Inc. The company has recovered more than 5,500 artifacts across nine expeditions since 1987 and is an affiliate of E/M Group. Visitors are guided through the story from construction and innovation, to luxury, loss, and legacy.

“We have curated them in these little sets that really tell the whole story,” Ray said. “We use the rivets and show you some of the electrical pieces which provide a visual of how the ship was really innovative for its time. And then we take you through the passenger experience. You can see how luxurious the ship really was through the room recreations and the gold wall sconce that still has the gold gilding on it.”

The emotional gravity of the exhibition lies in what was left behind. Preserved inside chemically treated leather bags, letters, receipts, and telegraphs offer a haunting glimpse into the lives lost.

“What’s incredible is how much we can learn about people from what they left behind,” Ray noted. “Usually, if someone finds your purse, they’re going to find something that tells us who you are.”

Among the artifacts are letters about a tenant’s good rent habits, a customs declaration from Egypt, and personal telegrams — small moments frozen in time.

Honoring the Wreck and Those We’ve Lost

The exhibit also features a moving tribute to Paul-Henri “PH” Nargeolet, RMS Titanic Inc.’s Director of Underwater Research, who tragically passed away in June 2023 while attempting his 38th submersible dive to Titanic. He still holds the record for 37 successful dives and was responsible for recovering around 80% of the artifacts on display.

A commemorative plaque in the memorial gallery honours his extraordinary legacy. “He was supposed to be with us on an exhibition last summer,” Ray said. “Losing him was a massive loss for us and for the entire Titanic community.”

Technology Meets Tragedy in VR

One of the most striking additions to the Toronto exhibit is its immersive virtual reality experience, created through a unique partnership with Exhibition Hub. The VR component allows guests to “dive” to the wreck site as it rests 12,500 feet below the surface of the North Atlantic.

“It’s so hard to understand the immense scale of this ship until you see it in VR,” Ray said. “The ship always looks small in books or on screen but in VR, it’s massive.”

The VR experience was created in partnership with Exhibition Hub, combining RMS Titanic Inc.’s real-life artifact collection with immersive 3D visuals inspired by expedition data and sonar scans, including mapping from the 2024 dive, which Ray herself joined. While the mission didn’t recover new artifacts, it documented changes in the debris field and helped inform this next-generation storytelling experience.

Among the exhibit’s most powerful interactive elements is the replica boarding pass, which assigns each visitor a real passenger identity. At the exhibit’s end, guests discover whether their passenger survived.