South Street Seaport Museum

South Street Seaport Museum is a maritime history museum in the Seaport neighborhood. It preserves artifacts, exhibition galleries, and three historic vessels including the 1885 schooner Pioneer, offering visitors access to over 26,500 works and a reference library of 55,000 items.

The South Street Seaport Museum holds over 26,500 works of art and artifacts plus a maritime reference library of more than 55,000 books, magazines, ship plans and historic records. It comprises exhibition galleries, a working 19th century print shop, a boat building shop, maritime crafts center, children's center, library and Museum Store. Its mission is to preserve, interpret and display the history of New York as a world port. The fleet includes the 1885 schooner Pioneer, the 1930 tugboat W.O. Decker, and the tall ship Wavertree—vessels that serve as teaching platforms as much as artifacts. Educational programs include field trips aboard historic vessels, sailing trips on the schooner, and lessons in navigation and water quality ecology. The museum teaches that commerce, ships, and print were bound together in how New York was built.