Titanic deck chair in Winona - WXOW News 19 La Crosse, WI – News, Weather and Sports |

WINONA, MN (WXOW)—Sunday marks the 100^th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, but before the ship set sail in 1912, one of the famous deck chairs was removed from the ship, given away as a gift and is now in Winona.

The Minnesota Marine Art Museum has the deck chair in its collections.

Andrew Maus, Minnesota Marine Art Museum Executive Director said the chair was given to Thomas Barker, a news photographer famous for taking pictures of passengers boarding the Titanic.

He liked the deck chairs so much they gave him one and he used it in his outdoor garden.

Eventually, he gave the chair to one of his housekeepers; and it made its way to Winona, but they don't know the history between the time the housekeeper had the chair and its trip to Winona.

While they do have the chair in their collections, it isn't on display right now.

"It was on display in 2010," Maus said.  "The collections total about 1200 pieces and at any given time we're about to display about 100 of them."

Maus said he doesn't believe the chair will be on display anytime soon because it was on display two years ago and they need to rotate through their entire collection for it to come up again.