South Street Seaport Museum

10038 New York, NY, United States of America (USA) (New York)

South Street Seaport Museum is a cultural institution dedicated to telling the story of the rise of New York as a port city and its critical role in the development of the United States. The Museum uses its historic buildings and ships to provide interactive exhibits, education, and experiences.

Navigational Instruments, Shipwright Tools, and Ship Components

Generations of artisans and carpenters, workmen, riggers, and sailmakers used the South Street waterfront district as a place to craft, market, and export their wares. The South Street Seaport Museum’s collection includes navigational instruments used by sailors to monitor their environment and vessels; thousands of historic and antique tools used for shipyard and port work by workmen and riggers; as well as a wide variety of historic ship components, such as ship bells, capstans, anchors, and small craft.

Highlights include the Ira S. Bushey Collection, Simon Douglas blacksmith tools, and the ship wheel of the ocean liner SS Normandie.

Printing History Collection

The printing history collection is built around a working fleet of printing presses, as well as a vast holding of printing equipment, printing types, photo-engravings, and hand cut wood blocks. This  collection preserves the tradition of small batch job printing in the 19th century, while keeping open and active dialogue with contemporary practices of Printmaking and Graphic Design communities.

Highlights include the Frederic Nelson Phillips “Tri-Arts” Collection which consists of decorative foundry type, for a total of 986 wooden boxes, containing 1200 fonts, ca. 1810-1910.

Ship Models

The models we house represent vessels dating back to New Amsterdam. Most were made after the 18th century, and includes models of merchant and fishing vessels, working vessels, ocean liners, warships, and other crafts of all sorts and sizes, as well as ship half models, and ships-in-a-bottle.

Among the 2,400 models at the Seaport Museum are Napoleonic-era Prisoner-of-War ship models, builder’s models of ocean liners, and waterline models by renowned builder Charles K. Van Ryper.

Street of Ships

The South Street Seaport Museum is home to a fleet of five historic vessels:
the 133 year-old Wavertree, cargo ship and flagship of the Seaport Museum’s fleet,
the Historic National Landmark 1907 lightship Ambrose,
schooners Pioneer and Lettie G. Howard, both award-winning sail training vessels,
and W.O. Decker, one of the last steam-powered, wooden tugs built in New York. 

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