Town Crier Articles

 

The Mariners’ Museum makes the bold claim that it is “a steward of one of the world’s most extensive maritime collections, committed to the preservation and conservation of more than 32,000 objects and several million library and archive materials.”

 

Make of that what you will, but the Museum is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums and follows its standards of care to ensure the survival of the collection for generations yet-to-come.

 

It has been that way for more than 90 years, spurred by the shared vision of Archer Milton Huntington and Homer L. Ferguson, two giants of Newport News history. Huntington’s personal library of maritime books formed the core of the museum’s library, now numbering nearly 110,000 books, 800,000 photos, films, and negatives and more than 1 million pieces of archival material. That makes it the largest maritime library in the Western Hemisphere.

 

                                                 

 

Library browsing isn’t everyone’s cup of grog. Among the myriad of things to see and experience too numerous to mention is the USS Monitor Center, an Award-winning exhibition that is a melding of artifacts, original documents, paintings, personal accounts, interactives and environments devoted to the epic Civil War battle between ironclads Monitor and Merrimac. It tells that story in a way the public has never seen before.

 

     

 

Visitors may walk down a mock deck and enter the CSS Virginia as she is being built for battle, step inside the battle theater and experience the action of the Battle of Hampton Roads, visit the living quarters of sailors as part of a full-scale reproduction, view the Monitor’s propeller and engine register and many other artifacts, 210 tons in fact.

 

In short, this is a 550-acre park which houses a museum offering theater, lectures, discussions, programs, dining and shopping. It’s at least a full day, maybe more depending on your variety of interests.

 

According to its website, admission is priced at $1. Add another $6 for admission to see the 3D movie. The museum is open daily 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., closing only on Thanksgiving and Christmas.

 

For more information, visit the website https://marinersmuseum.org/ or phone 757-596-2222.