- Connecticut River Museum
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Connecticut River Museum Established 1975 Location Essex, Connecticut, USA Type Maritime museum Website http://www.ctrivermuseum.org/ The Connecticut River Museum is a U.S. educational and cultural institution based at Steamboat Dock in Essex, Connecticut that focuses on the marine environment and maritime heritage of the Connecticut River Valley.
The three-story Connecticut River Museum is located in a restored 1878 steamboat warehouse.[1] The museum opened to the public in 1975, with Connecticut Governor Ella Grasso as its first paid member and ex officio patron. The core of its collection came from the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Connecticut, which provided the museum with a loan of nautical artwork, navigation equipment and maritime-related artifacts.[2]
The museum's main and third levels offer changing exhibits, while its second level is home to a permanent exhibition on shipbuilding, which includes historical maps and models of steamboats and exhibits on the piscine species in the Connecticut River.[3]
The museum's collection also includes a full-scale replica of Turtle, the first American submarine, which was constructed in Essex in 1776 for use against the British in the American Revolution.[1] The museum property also includes a boathouse and a research library. In December 1995, the museum was given a triangular 1-acre (4,000 m2) waterfront property, valued at US$910,000, in the neighboring village of Old Saybrook, Connecticut, by Bill and Victoria Winterer, who were among the museums co-founders. The property is used as a waterfront park managed by the museum.[4]
“Connecticut River Museum,” Frommer’s</ref>
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Categories:- Essex, Connecticut
- Museums in Middlesex County, Connecticut
- Maritime museums in Connecticut
- Science museums in Connecticut
- Institutions accredited by the American Association of Museums
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