By Brandon Hill on June 17, 2014 • ( Leave a comment )

2009: Chicago: Museum of Science and Industry: Trip 2: U-505 Submarine

While on this second trip to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago we took time to see the U-505 submarine which is housed at the museum. Here is what Wikipedia has to say about U-505:

“U-505 is a German Type IXC U-boat built for service in Nazi Germany’s Kriegsmarine during World War II. She was captured on 4 June 1944 by United States Navy Task Group 22.3 (TG 22.3). Her codebooks, Enigma machine, and other secret materials found on board assisted Allied code breaking operations. All but one of U-505‘s crew were rescued by the Navy task group. The submarine was towed to Bermuda in secret and her crew was interned at a US prisoner of war camp where they were denied access to International Red Cross visits. The Navy classified the capture as top secret and prevented its discovery by the Germans. In 1954, U-505 was donated to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, Illinois and is now a museum ship.”

We had a lot of fun viewing this exhibit, and I had a lot of fun creating this spread. I chose diamond plate and riveted steel background papers to mimic the texture of the submarine.

On the left hand page I carefully used my Crop-A-Dile Big Bite Punch to punch holes in the corners of the pictures, and then used the same tool to carefully place rivets in the corners of the pictures. When I placed these on the diamond plate background page it looks like they are being held to the page by the rivets – but they aren’t – I just used regular sticky tabs to affix the pictures. I also placed the pictures in a pinwheel format to mimic the propellers of the submarine.

On the right hand page I placed the professional photo that was taken at the exhibit so that it could be opened.

2009: Chicago: Museum of Science and Industry: Trip 2: U-505 Submarine: Open

In this view you can see what the folder looks like open. I carefully cut a slit in the plastic page protector for the folder to slide through so that the picture of us with is still under plastic. I did this by:

Placing the background paper inside the plastic protector
Placing the picture folder on top of the plastic protector where I wanted it to be
Sliding the picture folder to the right about 1/4 of an inch, so that the fold of the picture folder would overlap the plastic a little on the left side. This keeps the plastic protector from tearing when people are viewing the page.
Using an Exacto knife to carefully score the plastic.
Using a pair of sharp pointed scissors to carefully cut along the scored line.
Putting sticky tabs on the back of the picture folder and sliding it through the cut in the plastic and then pushing down on the plastic and picture folder to secure it in place.

Museum Hint: I will end this post by saying that if you are going to visit the Museum of Science and Industry that the U-505 is one of the things you must do while visiting the museum. The Museum is so big that there is no way to see everything in one trip , especially if you have small children with you. But, if you want to take the tour of the inside of the submarine you must buy extra tickets for it and you should do it early in the morning when you buy your tickets for the museum, the tour times usually fill up very quickly. In fact, if you know your time frames for the day, order them online ahead of time.