| Mariners' Museum | |
|---|---|
| Established | 1930 |
| Location | 100 Museum Drive Newport News, Virginia United States |
| Type | Maritime |
| Website | Mariners' Museum |
The Mariners' Museum is located in Newport News, Virginia. It is one of the largest maritime museums in the world as well as being the largest in North America.
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The museum was founded in 1932 by Archer Milton Huntington, son of Collis P. Huntington, a railroad builder who brought the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway to Warwick County, Virginia, and who founded the City of Newport News, its coal export facilities, and Newport News Shipbuilding in the late 19th century.
Archer and his wife, the sculptor Anna Hyatt Huntington, acquired 800 acres (3.2 km²) of land that would come to hold 61,000 square feet (5,700 m²) of exhibition galleries, a research library, a 167 acre (676,000 m²) lake, a five mile (8 km) shoreline trail with fourteen bridges, and over 35,000 maritime artifacts from around the globe. After acquisition took place, the first two years were devoted to creating and improving a natural park and constructing a dam to create Lake Maury, named after the nineteenth-century Virginia oceanographer Commodore Matthew Fontaine Maury.
The Museum’s collection totals approximately 35,000 artifacts, of which approximately one-third are paintings and two-thirds are three-dimensional objects. The scope of the Museum's collection is international. Included are 10 permanent galleries, changing and traveling exhibits, and virtual galleries available through the museum website. The collection of over 600,000 prints and 35,000 maritime artifacts is international in scope and includes miniature ship models, scrimshaw, maritime paintings, decorative arts, carved figureheads, working steam engines, and the world's only known existing Kratz-built steam calliope. The museum holds an important collection of paintings and drawings by marine artist James Bard.[1] The museum offers educational programs for all ages, a large research library and archives, as well as publications and Internet resources for teachers.
The Mariners' Museum is home to the U.S.S. Monitor Center. In 1973, the wreck of the ironclad U.S.S. Monitor, made famous in the Battle of Hampton Roads in 1862 during the American Civil War was located on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean about 16 miles southeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.[2] The wreck site was designated as the United States' first national marine sanctuary. Monitor Sanctuary is the only one of the thirteen national marine sanctuaries created to protect a cultural resource, rather than a natural resource.[2]
The Monitor National Marine Sanctuary is now under the supervision of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.[2] Many artifacts from Monitor, including her innovative turret, propeller, anchor, engine and some personal effects of the crew, have been brought to the museum. For several years, they were conserved in special tanks to stabilize the metal. The new U.S.S. Monitor Center officially opened on March 9, 2007, and a full-scale replica of the Monitor, the original recovered turret, and many artifacts and related items are now on display.[3][4] Current efforts are focused on restoring the engine.[5]