Since its founding in 1930, the Museum has aggressively collected artifacts to document the diverse ways in which people around the world have set out to sea. From a collection of over 150 small craft, Mariners’ Museum curatorial staff have creatively arranged 75 vessels within the new 17,500-square-foot Center to immediately immerse visitors in the vastness of this collection and the amazing art, history, technology and human culture surrounding each unique vessel.

Finely finished Chris-Crafts, simplistic dugouts from a variety of countries, fragile and thin racing shells, sleek recreational yachts, Native American birchbark and dugout canoes, sampans, a gondola, and kayaks and umiaks of Eskimos from Alaska to Greenland are just some of the many historic craft creatively arranged in the new Center.

Visitors will begin their journey in the new Center with two options—viewing the current special exhibition, or touring the collection. The special changing exhibition allows vessels from the small craft collection that are not a part of the main exhibition to be interpreted. Arranged within the center into nine thematic sections, the main exhibition is interpreted in each section with three to seven boats from various countries throughout the world.

The International Small Craft Center includes the T. Parker Host, Jr. Conservation Complex, which encompasses the permanent exhibition area and a conservation area where Museum staff and volunteers work to conserve vessels in the collection. Visitors can also take advantage of a new dedicated space for researching the small craft collection in the E. Peter and Caddy R. Meekins Reading & Research Rooms.