Maritime City

The South Street Seaport Museum’s latest exhibition Maritime City, highlights how New York City, as we know it today, arose from the sea. Throughout the extensive three-floor exhibition, 540 deliberately-selected objects from the collections and archives of the Seaport Museum are on view to underscore how the city’s identity as a global capital of culture and finance is rooted in its origins as a seaport. 

As you walk through the exhibition, you will discover how the waterways, people, and industries of the Greater New York area—including all the boroughs, Long Island, and the Lower Hudson Valley—led to the creation of a truly diverse city. By sharing the material culture of New York and its people, the objects on display highlight stories of the working class people employed by ships, shipping lines, and other local industries throughout history, as well as the emigrant workers and immigrant families that came through the port as their first stop in America. 

The exhibition is housed within the historic A.A. Thomson & Co. building, an Italianate cast-iron and stone warehouse for tin and metals designed by the renowned New York City architect Stephen D. Hatch (1839–1894) in 1868 for Alexander and William A. Thomson of A.A. Thomson & Co.. From 2019 to 2024, the building was restored to serve as the beating heart and cultural anchor of the South Street Seaport Historic District. Working with the celebrated preservation architecture firm Beyer Blinder Belle, the Seaport Museum transformed the warehouse into a large-scale exhibition space, a hub for engaging educational programming, and a gathering space for the community.