Music Chairs Chamber Ensemble
Mid-Week Bird Walk: William T Davis Wildlife Refuge
Staten Island Time Machine: The Civil War Years
Teen Environmental Club: Beach Clean-Up
Jr. Science Club: Making Light of Optics
History Talk: The Irish on Staten Island
Film: Woman Art Revolution
Eco Walk: Early Spring at Willowbrook Park
Mid-Week Bird Walk: Clove Lakes Park
Lunch & Learn: Susan Grabel and Socially Conscious Art
History Talk: Bricks, Burrs & Beer
Artist’s Talk: Fred Sklenar
Lenape Artifact Exploration
Teen Environmental Club: American Museum of Natural History Trip
Forensic CSI: The Case of the Missing Cookies!
Museum Art Atelier
Bird Walk: South Beach/Fort Wadsworth
All About the Staten Island Ferry
Outdoor Adventures: Long Pond Park
Art Now: Romare Bearden Experience
Outdoor Adventures: Willowbrook Park
Jr. Science Club: Catapult into Physics
Wonderland at St George Release
SI Museum’s Arist Talk with Fred Sklenar
Constructions of Conscience Release
SI Museum Teen Environmental Club Receives Support from Con Edison
SI Museum’s 130th Anniversary
Staten Island Museum TD Charitable Foundation
SI Museum Fence Show
SI Museum Building A Construction
SI Museum Gesture Exhibition Opening
Staten Island Museum Groundbreaking
View of the Quarantine Grounds at Staten Island
The Staten Island Ferryboat President Roosevelt at the Saint George Slip
The Narrows from New Brighton
Afternoon Exercises of the Ladies Club for Outdoor Sports at Camp Washington, Staten Island
Shoreline of New Brighton
View of Fort Lafayette from Fort Richmond
Group of naturalists on “Salt-Water Day” at Crooke’s Point in Great Kills
Staten Island Waterfront Showing East and North Shores
Staten Island Athletic Club
Charles and Edward Kreischer Mansions Arthur Kill Road
German Club Rooms in Stapleton
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Staten Island Ferry: The First 100 Years of Municipal Service
Explore the history, art, people and sites of Staten Island's floating icon.
Coinciding with the Ferry's Centennial Anniversary in 2005, the Staten Island Museum opened a new permanent exhibition celebrating one of NYCs best-loved icons, the Staten Island Ferry. The Ferry is the second most visited site in NYC (after the Statue of Liberty) with over 65,000 people riding the ferry daily.
Only a short, 5-minute walk from the St. George Ferry Terminal, the Staten Island Museum has long been the interpreter of the Staten Island Ferry. Our Ferry Collection was initiated by our Co-Founder William T. Davis, whose grandfather, John C. Thompson, was superintendent of the then privately-operated Staten Island Ferry from the 1850s to 1870s. Having operated a small museum at the St. George Ferry Terminal for nearly two decades (prior to the current reconstruction of the terminal), we know that the topic of the Staten Island Ferry is of great interest to children and adults alike.
In 1905, a nickel bought a ride aboard one of the new coal burning city steam ferries, each named for a borough of New York. Today "the Boat", as locals so affectionately call it, carries over 19 million passengers annually on the peaceful and better yet, FREE trip across the harbor. On a typical day 104 trips move upward of 65,000 people cross the harbor, making the Staten Island Ferry the most reliable form of mass transit in the city, if not the country, running 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. NYC is truly the city that never sleeps.
Captured many times over in art, literature, film, and music, the Staten Island Ferry has become a New York icon and unofficial symbol of the borough of Staten Island.
This exhibition is supported by a major grant from the Achelis Foundation with additional support from the Staten Island Advance.
The Diver Man
In 2009 the Staten Island Museum welcomed back its historic, newly restored, and much anticipated “Diver Man”. The over 50-year old statuesque U.S. Navy Mark V Diving Suit spent the previous 15 years in the depths of the Staten Island Museum’s History Archives before it was shipped off to an art conservation studio in the Brooklyn Navy Yards to be restored. Donated to the Staten Island Ferry Museum by retired ferry captain Theodore Costa, the Staten Island Museum acquired the impressive piece when the Staten Island Ferry Museum closed in 1993. The Diver Man stands close to 7-feet-tall, complete with familiar copper headpiece, canvas suit, 185-pound lead belt and 17-pound each weighted shoes. The suit once allowed Navy divers and ferry repairmen to work underwater for up to 8 hours.
Launch of the Staten Island Ferry Rider's Guide
Starting on the anniversary of the Staten Island Ferry as Municipal Service (October 25, 2005), the Staten Island Museum will be distributing the brochure: Staten Island Ferry Rider's Guide. It will be available (while supplies last) for tourists and commuters alike at the Ferry Terminals and the Staten Island Museum. This self-guided tour will highlight landmarks seen from the "boat" and will encourage riders to disembark and explore St. George attractions including the Staten Island Museum.
Download the Ferry Riders Guide (PDF 2 MB)
What You Always Wanted to Know About the Ferry —
But Didn't Know Who to Ask!
How does the boat stop? Why isn't the route a straight line? Send us your questions about the Staten Island Ferry and perhaps we will add them to our exhibition.
We welcome your questions – Email our Education Department.
Axe Head
Projectile points
Stone Head
Clovis point
Cicada from Grand Cayman Island
Mixed Samples
Cephalopod Fossil
Eastern Screech Owl
Bluefish
Semi-lunar Knifes
Platform Pipe
Wolf Skull
SI Museum’s Portraits of Leadership
Coverage
Media Releases
Opening Reception: Constructions of Conscience: The Social Art of Susan Grabel
Musical Chairs Chamber Ensemble: Concert
Bayonne Bridge at Night
American Legion Leaves Manhattan
Spanish Camp: Rose Morse Outside Dorothy Day Cottage
Spanish Camp: Seguine Pond
Bill Higgins
Michael Falco
Berenice Abbott
Mr. and Mrs. John Sloan in His Studio
Extreme Makeover Bldg A, 2 Years and Counting
Elizabeth Egbert Louis R Miller Business Leadership Award
Staten Island Museum receives $2500 grant
SI Museum will celebrate 130 years of growing
SI Museum Breaks Ground
Super Saturday Fence Show
SI Chamber of Commerce - Groundbreaking
SI Museum Breaks Ground on New Home
Staten Island Museum to begin preparing its new home
West Brighton artist Andrea Phillips earns her first one
Hall of Natural Science
The museum presents our own cabinet of curiosities and collected wonders of nature, including selections of our best: stuffed birds, eggs, mammals, shells, fossils, plant specimens, amphibians and more things in jars!
Featuring: Fluorescent Mineral Room
Ground Beetle
Galena
Chambered nautilus
Western U.S. Cicada
Knobbed Whelk
Fish fossil
Ivory-billed woodpecker
Merchandise
Find unique Staten Island-related gifts and souvenirs!
Please call 718.727.1135 for more information or to place your order.
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Seed Fern Fossils
Pennsylvanian Period
St. Clair, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.
Collected from the waste rock of a coal mine, seed ferns (now extinct) differ from true ferns in that they reproduced by seed. True ferns reproduce through spores. As plant tissue decomposed, fine-grained shale preserved the shape and delicate details. The resulting cavity was filled with the mineral pyrophyllite (white deposits). Yellow or orange coloration is limonite (iron oxide).
Assorted sizes and shapes.
$8.00 -
Acrylic Diver Guy Magnet
The Diver Guy: an iconic figure in the Museum’s permanent collection. Standing over six feet tall and the subject of many souvenir photos, he has been transformed to a more portable size and magnetized, adding to his already captivating charm.
$8.00 -
Staten Island Museum Postcard Magnets,
Statue of LibertyFeaturing historic images from the Museum’s unique postcard and photograph collection.
$3.00 -
Staten Island Museum Postcard Magnets,
President Roosevelt c. 1940Featuring historic images from the Museum’s unique postcard and photograph collection..
$3.00 -
Staten Island Museum Postcard Magnets,
Vintage ViewfinderFeaturing historic images from the Museum’s unique postcard and photograph collection.
$3.00 -
Copper and Brass Diver Helmet Key Chain
The diver guy’s helmet in miniature. A tiny reminder of the Museum’s Ferry exhibit installation, this solid brass and copper key chain is a wonderful gift to be used to secure keys or uniquely displayed as a dangling ornament.
$8.00 -
Molinari Class Staten Island Ferry Miniature
Take the ride on the real deal. Own the pocket sized version. These new 4 inch replicas of the 3000 ton, 310 foot long Molinari class boats built to carry 4400 passengers can only be found in the Museum Store.
$10.00 -
Butterfly Ornament
Special Edition Ornament handcrafted for the Staten Island Museum by Angenita and the late Jack Turner, ceramic artists.
$10.00 -
Staten Island Museum Tote Bag
The perfect carry all for your groceries or items from the Museum Store. 100% cotton canvas with original art by Elle Finn, Staten Island artist.
$10.00
Lenape: The First Staten Islanders
A classic favorite returned to the Museum! Come and see artifacts from the Museum's renowned Lenape Collection with pieces that date back to the Paleo-Indians of more than 10,000 years ago.
This new permanent installation in the Institute's auditorium details the story of the Lenape Indians life. The Lenape's existence among the bleak tundra-like landscape was difficult, but gradually evolved over thousands of years with the development of agriculture, permanent settlements, and a more temperate climate. Visitors and classes will see an array of artifacts and mounted specimens related to Lenape food, clothing and other aspects of survival.
Look for three new original murals:
Created by Betty Seminario, 2006.
Mural production by Susan Crabtree, 2006.
The murals will illustrate the way of life for Algonquin tribal life on Staten Island through the ages, before the arrival of European settlers. Our collection of art, tools, natural history specimens and documents reveal how the original settlers of our island lived.
Watercolor by John White, c. 1585-87. Reproduced from The New World by Stefan Lorant
Stone head found in Concord, Staten Island in 1884. Similar specimens have been found in other NY and Penn. locations, suggesting an Iroquoian affliation or cultural interaction between these and the Staten Island Indians. From the Staten Island Museum's Natural History Collection. Photo by Bill Higgins.
A Richmond County Savings Foundation Exhibition
Wall of Insects
Fascinating butterflies, cicadas, and beetles from the permanent collection burst with colors and different shapes.
Agrias narcissus - Obidos, Para, Brazil
Dogface, Zerene cesonia - United States
Sponsored by Time Warner Cable
