Erie Maritime Museum

Infobox Museum
name = Erie Maritime Museum

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caption = The US Brig "Niagara" docked behind the Erie Maritime Museum.
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established = May 21, 1998
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location = 150 East Front Steet Erie, Pennsylvania
type = Maritime museum
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publictransit = Erie Metropolitan Transit Authority
website = [http://www.brigniagara.org/museum www.brigniagara.org/museum]

Erie Maritime Museum is a maritime museum located on Presque Isle Bay in downtown Erie, Pennsylvania. It was the first new PHMC museum in twenty years when it opened its doors on May 21, 1998. It is the homeport of the US Brig "Niagara", a modern recreation of the US Brig "Niagara" that fought in the Battle of Lake Erie.

Exhibits

The museum offers a wide range of multi-media and interactive exhibits coupled with lively interpretive programs that vividly illustrate the region's rich maritime heritage. When in homeport, the ship herself is the major "exhibit". Berthed within yards of the museum, Niagara is visible from the building's bay side picture window. Inside, the centerpiece exhibits of the museum are a former steam-powered electricity generating station and a reconstruction of the mid-ship section of the USS Lawrence. The replicated Lawrence, Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry's first flagship during the Battle of Lake Erie, comes complete with mast, spars and rigging to foster hands-on learning in the ways of sail handling.

Another powerful display is the adjoining section of the Lawrence replica that has been blasted with live ammunition from the current Niagara's own carronades at the National Guard training facility in Fort Indiantown Gap, near Harrisburg. This unprecedented "live fire" exhibit of the Lawrence recreates the horrific carnage inflicted upon both ships and men during the Battle of Lake Erie and throughout the Age of Fighting Sail. Other exhibits tell the stories of the USS "Wolverine" (previously the USS "Michigan"), the nation's first iron-hulled warship, the environmental transformation of the Great Lakes ecosystem and much more.

Location

The museum, which adjoins the Raymond Blasco Erie County Library is located at 150 East Front St.

ee also

* List of maritime museums in the United States
* List of museum ships

References

* [http://www.brigniagara.org/museum.htm Erie Maritime Museum website]