Touch Tour at the Mariners' Museum

In collaboration with the Mariners' Museum, we created 3D printed models of a reed canoe and a wooden ship. We also created a scale board of vessels to show the difference in size between the reed canoe, a wooden ship the Half Moon from the 17th century, and a steel ship the Titanic. The museumgoers, from Access Virginia, who attended the touch tour were blind or had low vision and thoroughly enjoyed the tactile experience.

Scale Board

This is a scale comparison between reed canoes, wooden ships during the 17th century and the spice trade as we just talked about, and steel ships like the Titanic.

Scale Board Labels

The scale board had labels with large print and braille.

Experiencing the Scale Board

The audience giggled and gasped at the size difference between the reed canoe and the Titanic as shown on the scale board.

Wooden Ship

This is a combination of a 3D printed wooden ship. The body of the ship is made of 3D printed plastic. The masts are made of wooden dowl rods and the sails are linen material.

Experiencing the Wooden Ship

As the audience experienced the model of the wooden ship, they were provided an audio description about different aspect of the model.

Display Aids

All display aids were donated to the museum.