Cherbourg marks Titanic’s rediscovery 40th anniversary with new artifact exhibit

The 40th anniversary of the Titanic ship’s rediscovery on September 1, 1985, is seen as an opportunity to present new objects found during the joint Franco-American expedition. Since April 2025, La Cité de la Mer in Cherbourg (Normandy/France) unveiled its new collection of artifacts recovered from the Titanic wreck site as part of its permanent exhibition, “Titanic, Back to Cherbourg”. It is the only permanent Titanic exhibit in France.

Thanks to an exclusive partnership between La Cité de la Mer and U.S.-based RMS Titanic, Inc., about 40 objects are displayed for two years. Among them: passenger belongings found in luggage, items linked to crew members, and original White Star Line tableware.

Personal stories and rare artifacts

One of the most poignant personal collections belonged to Marian Meanwell, a milliner and dressmaker who boarded the Titanic in third class. She was traveling to New York to help her widowed daughter care for her children.

Artifacts recovered from her crocodile handbag, raised in 2000, include her parents’ marriage certificate, a Birmingham theater receipt, and a glass vial. A White Star Line receipt fragment revealed an unusual detail: Marian traveled with a canary from Southampton to Cherbourg. Passenger records confirm a canary among the 22 people and parcels disembarked in France, though its fate remains a mystery.

A modest watering can engraved “Souvenir de Folkestone” also enters the exhibit. It once belonged to Paul-Henri Nargeolet—the French Titanic expert and longtime ambassador of La Cité de la Mer—who died in 2023 aboard the submersible Titan.

The new collection also sheds light on crew members, including First Officer William Murdoch. On April 14, 1912, Murdoch ordered the ship to turn after spotting the iceberg, later overseeing lifeboat preparations. Visitors can view a leather bag embossed with his initials, a pipe, and uniform buttons marked with the White Star Line emblem. While historians are still investigating, evidence suggests these items belonged to Murdoch himself.

An evolving exhibit

These artifacts enrich the exhibition route retracing Titanic’s fateful voyage from Cherbourg to its sinking. Since opening on April 10, 2012—exactly 100 years after the ship’s stop in Cherbourg—curators renew every two years the exhibit with new items from RMS Titanic, Inc. The collaboration also commits La Cité de la Mer to publish fresh research on passengers and their personal stories, adding to the historical record.

Beyond Titanic, visitors can explore the museum’s “Great Gallery of Submarines and Men,” featuring vessels that dove to the wreck site 12,500 feet below the North Atlantic. It includes France’s Nautile, the U.S. Alvin, and Russia’s Mir.

The most beautiful maritime terminal in the world

Since 2002, Cherbourg’s Transatlantic Maritime Station, an Art Deco masterpiece inaugurated in 1933, houses la Cité de la Mer. Once hailed by the international press as “the most beautiful maritime terminal in the world,” it was the second-largest building in France at the time, after Versailles. Architect René Levavasseur drew inspiration from the 1925 International Exhibition of Decorative Arts in Paris, and his creation still stands today as the last monumental maritime terminal of its kind in Europe.

The maritime terminal is a historic monument since 1989. Voted France’s “favorite monument” in 2022, French authorities wants the station to become a UNESCO World Heritage. Its monumental halls and grand architecture indeed provide the perfect backdrop for Titanic’s story.

The museum also started “Cherbourg Transatlantic,” an immersive experience in the maritime station’s former train hall. It offers visitors a journey back to the golden age of ocean liners and the rediscovery of its Art Deco heritage. La Cité de la Mer receives over 300,000 visitors on average every year.