About the Mystic Seaport Museum
Mystic Seaport Museum was founded in 1929 as the Marine Historical Association. One of its founders, the philanthropist Mary Stillman Harkness, gave land that had belonged to her grandfather, the Mystic shipbuilder Thomas Stillman Greenman, and in 1945 donated his house as well. The museum became one of the country's first living history museums, assembling more than 60 historic buildings, many of them rare commercial structures moved to the site, into a recreated 19th-century seaport village on 19 acres along the Mystic River. It is the largest maritime museum in the United States and draws about 250,000 visitors a year.
The museum's reputation was made in 1941 when it acquired the Charles W. Morgan. Launched in 1841, the Morgan is the last survivor of an American whaling fleet that once numbered more than 2,700 vessels and is the oldest commercial ship still afloat in the country; only the USS Constitution is older. The Henry B. duPont Preservation Shipyard, the first shipyard in the United States built specifically for preservation work, maintains the Morgan and the rest of the historic fleet using traditional methods, and visitors can watch shipwrights at work. The yard also built the replica of the schooner Amistad, launched in 2000. In the village, interpreters demonstrate trades in the cooperage, shipsmith, print shop, and shipcarver's shop.
Exhibition galleries currently include Monstrous: Whaling and Its Colossal Impact, the restored aft cabin of the ship Benjamin F. Packard, a figurehead and ship-carving collection, and Brickwrecks, shipwrecks modeled in LEGO bricks. The grounds also hold the Treworgy Planetarium and a marina for visitors arriving by boat. Since 1955 the museum has hosted the Frank C. Munson Institute of American Maritime Studies, a summer graduate program founded by the Harvard historian Robert G. Albion.
Collections and Research Services
The museum's Collections Research Center, home of the American Institute for Maritime Studies, holds more than two million items of maritime art, artifacts, tools, manuscripts, imprints, and other documents. For genealogists and vessel researchers the strongest holdings are roughly 1,000 ship registers, extensive manuscript collections, ship plans, maritime periodicals, photographs including the Rosenfeld Collection of yachting images, 600 audiotaped and 200 videotaped oral history interviews, and about 1.5 million feet of historic and contemporary maritime film. Much of the catalog is searchable online, and the museum also maintains the Whaling History database of crew lists and voyages.
Researchers can visit the Collections Research Center in person, submit a research inquiry or digitization request through an online form, or order reference copies and photo research by mail. Hours, appointment requirements, and fees for these services are posted on the research section of the museum's website. For general methods, see our guide to free family history research.
Planning Your Visit
The museum is at 75 Greenmanville Avenue in Mystic, reachable by car, by train to Mystic station, or by boat. Published hours are daily from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., but the schedule changes seasonally, so confirm current days, ticket prices, and the events calendar at mysticseaport.org. Groups of 15 or more receive reduced admission with advance reservations, several restaurants operate on the grounds, and the museum store sells ship plans and Rosenfeld prints. Elsewhere in Connecticut, our directory covers the Mark Twain House & Museum in Hartford.
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