Independence Seaport Museum
Independence Seaport Museum
Philadelphia's maritime museum houses many nautical artifacts, figureheads, and ship models as well as interactive exhibits that convey just what the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers have meant to the city's fortunes over the years. You can climb in the gray, cold wooden bunks used in steerage, unload cargo from giant container ships with a miniature crane, weld and rivet a ship's hull, or even hop in a scull and row along the Schuylkill. Enter the museum by passing under the three-story replica of the Benjamin Franklin Bridge.
Philadelphia has been an important seaport town since the 1600s. The Seaport Museum traces this history through exhibits, demonstrations, and several ships on display, including a World War II submarine and the USS Olympia, Admiral Dewey's flagship in the Spanish-American War. The auditorium at the museum is also used for chamber music concerts
As you walk through the museum, you are confronted with interactive displays and artifacts not unlike the Franklin Institute, though many of these displays are attractive, creative and well thought out. Some are as simple as ringing various boat whistles but it extends to a computer controlled first person narrative of a Philadelphia sailor's time in the Merchant Marines, from a reconstruction deck of the ship he served on, with the seven windows panes of the bridge each displaying aspects of the story, or a fused picture of the rolling sea ahead. One other display has various headlines displayed in short video format, the display mounted in a Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper box.
Helpful information for the visitor:
Admission:
$8.00 for adults
$4.00 for children (ages 5-12)
$6.50 for seniors (65 and over)
FREE Admission on Sunday mornings from 10am to 12pm (not applicable to groups)
Hours:
Open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m
