Taste of Titanic at the Strathmore library

Times Reporter  

 

From now until Dec. 1 there are historic and interesting memorabilia at the Strathmore Municipal Library. Items from the Titanic are on display to help generate awareness and interest in the upcoming lecture and exhibit. 

Larry Robinson, a Titanic historian, was in the neighbourhood and decided to approach the library about putting up the display and hosting a lecture. 

Robinson has hosted lectures at various schools, colleges, museums and galleries since 1991. He also hosted tours when the TELUS World of Science had their Titanic exhibit last year.

“We were just completely shocked to have something like this land in our laps, it is such a great opportunity so we jumped on it right away. We thought with 2012 being the 100th anniversary of Titanic we really wanted to aim to have this program in this year,” said Carmen Erison, acting director of library services. 

“There was no thinking about it, we had to present this type of program. It was such a great opportunity. Everybody knows about this historical event. They might just know it by the movie but now if they come they’re going to hear more about the actual story.”

The display is now up. On Dec. 1 Robinson will be speaking in a children’s program from 10:30 a.m. until 12 noon, and then in an adults program from 1 p.m. until 3 p.m. The children’s lecture will focus more on the story and significant events. Robinson has discovered that adults are more interested in learning more about the technical side of what happened and so that is what they will hear. 

“I will be showing a rare 1912 film on the Titanic and because it’s a silent film, it’s about half an hour long, so I lecture on that while the film is playing to get a lot of information out there about the film and what’s going on in it,” said Robinson. 

In addition to some of the items already on display and the film Robinson plans to also bring photos and some duct plans. Robinson said a lot of Titanic historians have different specialties, for some it may be about the passengers and the survivors.

“I myself I focus on the technology of the ship. The woodwork, the room layouts, the way they riveted steel back then. There’s other historians that revolve around the Titanic and the Californian affair, that’s the ship that sat about 10 miles away, it was called the Californian and that sat there all through the night while the Titanic sank,” said Robinson. 

“Californian officers saw the eight rockets from the Titanic so they’re involved around the legalities, so again not much interested in the ship or the passengers just in the legal format behind it. When you get a few Titanic historians together everybody is in a different focus.”

The event is completely free to anyone who wishes to attend, and everyone is welcome to attend either or both lectures.