At 22 feet long, the 1935 model of the legendary ocean liner RMS Queen Mary wouldn’t fit in most basements. But it’s fine in new gallery spaces at the South Street Seaport Museum.

“The model, of course, was in the Cunard Building, 25 Broadway, which was the Cunard ticket office, and this model, with its sister Queen Elizabeth, was the demonstration of the line,” Captain Jonathan Boulware, president and CEO of the museum, said.  

What You Need To Know

  • "Maritime City" is a new exhibition at the South Street Seaport Museum in Manhattan

  • The exhibition is on three floors of the restored A.A. Thompson and Company building on Water Street

  • The building is part of the campus that includes other 19th-century structures, a print shop and a pier with a fleet of historic ships 

The model is one of 540 objects from the museum's collection on display for the exhibition “Maritime City,” on three floors inside the newly renovated A.A. Thompson and Company building at 213 Water St. Boulware calls it the museum’s new center of gravity.

“We are standing in what used to be a tin and metals warehouse. It had other lives, a dye warehouse and so forth, but this is a piece of architecture that is objectively beautiful, but is also a piece of the story of New York as a trading port,” said Boulware of the space restored by the museum over five years along with renowned preservation firm Beyer Blinder Belle. 

There are artifacts, like a bell from one of the museum’s historic ships, the Wavertree. The bell actually has the ship’s original name engraved on it, the Southgate. The renovation really honors the history of the building, including display cases designed with resiliency in mind.

“They look like boxes, they look like a modern take on crates, they would have been in this building, and they allow us to retain objects but also take care of those objects really well,” Martina Caruso, director of collections and exhibitions at the museum, said.  

There are items big and small, including ships in bottles, artwork, photos and flat file drawers that bring the tools for arts and crafts techniques and the final products inside.

The space will also be open for all types of programming. The museum is a campus that includes A.A. Thompson, Bowne and Company Stationers Historic Print Shop, Schermehorn Row, the 19th-century buildings on Fulton Street and Pier 16 with its fleet of historic ships. All together, they tell the story of how the city became what it is today.

“New York arose from the sea. If you seek to understand New York, here’s a great place to start,” Boulware said.

For more information, visit the museum's website.