DENVER (CBS4)– A replica of the Titanic will now be on display at the Molly Brown House Museum to help visitors appreciate the famous ship and Brown’s connection to the maiden voyage she survived. Brown also helped advocate for important causes to her in Colorado and across the country.
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“Mrs. Brown is most famous for having survived the sinking of the Titanic,” said Andrea Malcomb, the museum director. “It gave her a platform, it gave her international notoriety.”
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The ship arrived at the house at the time the original Titanic was at sea 107 years ago. The model is 1/250th scale of the actual ship and helps to showcase the detail put into the Titanic. It is almost four feet in length compared to the original, which was 882 feet long.
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“I guess it’s a relief more than anything else,” said Larry Cisson, he built the model for the museum.
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Cisson lives in Arizona, he traveled to Denver to deliver the ship in person. He says it took him almost 700 hours to complete the project. It was not as easy as he thought it would be but he thinks it will help people to appreciate the Titanic, the largest of its kind at the time. He says the craft of creating these models is losing the talent it needs to continue for another generation.
Larry Cisson (credit: CBS)
“I wish more people would get into it, it’s a dying art, I’ve been doing it for a long time,” he said.
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Visitors will see his work in a section of the house dedicated to the voyage and the people who were traveling on the ship.
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“I hope they say, ‘I sure like the model of the Titanic.’”
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Margret Brown, later known as Molly, advocated for labor reform and the suffrage movement after returning home. Many lessons came from the Titanic including safety measures for travel, law reform, and improvements in science.
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Brown wasn’t the only person from Colorado to board the ship but she is likely the most well-known from the state. She traveled the country talking about her experience.
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“They actually built a replica of the Titanic and then sunk it in Sloan’s Lake,” Malcomb said.
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The tribute to Brown happened in the summer of 1912 once she was back in Colorado, the replica was about 20 feet long.
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The new piece in the collection at the museum comes after three years of renovations and leading up the Perseveration Month. The museum is now able to accommodate more people with disabilities and hope it can attract more people to see the links between their home and the rest of the world. Tours are available daily.
Andrea Malcomb (credit: CBS)
“We really like to tell deeper stories here in Denver and in Colorado that connect our history and our cultural heritage that we share together.”
