Local History at The Hudson River Maritime Museum

The Hudson River Maritime Museum is a non-profit organization that is dedicated to the preservation of the Hudson River and educating the public about its maritime history. The museum was founded in 1979 as a way to display the shipping history of the Hudson as well as to collect, preserve, research and interpret a collection of artifacts related to it. It was by the next year they opened their first exhibit. They originally opened the museum in a storefront on Broadway in Kingston, but in 1983 they moved down the street to a property directly on the banks of the Rondout Creek, which is a tributary of the Hudson River. 

While the museum’s primary goal has generally remained the same since its founding, they also acquired property in 2015 to open the Wooden Boat School and in 2017 they opened a Sailing and Rowing School that once hosted a sailing program for the youth, but is now open to students of all ages in order to expand on the educational opportunities offered at the museum. Today, the museum hosts annual exhibits, free events for the public, lectures, publications, and educational programs for children and adults alike. In addition to the educational programs the museum organizes, they also regularly host school field trips. These exhibits, events and educational programs are developed and constantly improved upon by both permanent museum staff and a generous community of volunteers. One of the central issues the Hudson River Maritime Museum focuses on is pollution and climate change. They use their exhibits to teach about these subjects by explaining the role the river played in America’s environmental movement, ways humans have impacted the river and the consequences felt by local communities, and methods for preserving the river not only in the past, but in the present and future as well. Their exhibit called “Rescuing the River: 50 Years of Environmental Activism on the Hudson” provides a detailed history of the topic using primary sources such as photographs, paintings, newspaper articles, and oral histories and interviews. Also, for the months of January and February, the Hudson River Maritime Museum is hosting an exhibit from the Smithsonian Institution’s Museums on Main Street program called “Water/Ways”, which explains the importance of water on our everyday lives and applies it to a local context.

The museum also houses an abundance of historical artifacts, including hundreds of ship models, photographs, blueprints, tools, and a collection of historic vessels and their parts to give patrons an up-close look at the heritage of the Hudson River and its tributaries. The museum also provides online versions of many of their exhibits to be as accessible as possible for those who cannot visit the museum in person. Their website also includes a history blog that is updated regularly with posts about the various topics the museum covers for those seeking to learn even more about the history of the river. The Hudson River Maritime Museum uses their resources and knowledge to provide the public with an extensive, but by no means exhaustive history of an extremely significant feature in American history and its surrounding area.