Herreshoff Marine Museum/America's Cup Hall of Fame

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Herreshoff Marine Museum/America's Cup Hall of Fame The sites include history on the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company & The America's Cup Hall of Fame Visit, join, and be a part of a great tradition.
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The Museum, bordering beautiful Narragansett Bay in Bristol, Rhode Island, is one of the nation's most important historic maritime treasures. Immerse yourself in exhibits about the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company, the America’s Cup, and the fabulous people and yachts that gained fame around the world. Participate in our extraordinary events and expand your horizons.

Today in Herreshoff history: October 14, 1915The first batch of ten NY40s was contracted for on this day from HMCo. #77...
10/14/2026

Today in Herreshoff history: October 14, 1915

The first batch of ten NY40s was contracted for on this day from HMCo. #773 (MAISIE) to HMCo. #782 (PAULINE). A picture is worth a thousand words, so here are the first boats under sail at various times in their ensuing careers. The first, MAISIE (HMCo. #773), was launched on January 4, 1916, and the last PAULINE (HMCo. #782) was launched on April 21. Two more were contracted later in the fall/winter of 1915 and were also launched in time for the first summer of racing in 1916. An impressive start to a fleet. It would also have been an awful lot of work over the course of a single winter at HMCo., but nothing they weren't used to. Just one example: the contract for MARIETTE (HMCo. #772), was signed just one week before, and she too was completed that spring.

10/09/2026

I mean it...

Today in Herreshoff history: October 6, 1877The Bristol Phoenix reports that the 25' Herreshoff catboat GLEAM has won qu...
10/06/2026

Today in Herreshoff history: October 6, 1877

The Bristol Phoenix reports that the 25' Herreshoff catboat GLEAM has won quite a few races! According to the Phoenix, this winning streak came as a surprise to local yachtsmen. According to the Phoenix at least, N.G.H. had apparently not yet cemented his reputation locally as an astute helmsman or designer of extraordinarily fast boats. More than a decade later in 1889, the catyawl ALICE (HMCo. #405) was built to this same model. ALICE is still with us today - in fact, she is among the oldest boats in the collection and on display at HMM.

📸 ALICE (HMCo. #405) at anchor, sometime after 1910; image from the HMM photo archive.

Today in Herreshoff history: October 5, 1900J.B.H. returns from another cruise! This time aboard one of the many EUGENIA...
10/05/2026

Today in Herreshoff history: October 5, 1900

J.B.H. returns from another cruise! This time aboard one of the many EUGENIA's (probably the third, HMCo. #205 - there were four in total). This time he was accompanied by his wife on their trip to Hartford, Connecticut.

📸 EUGENIA III (HMCo. #205), probably photographed after 1902; image from the HMM photo archive

Today in Herreshoff history: October 4, 1895The town of Bristol is "on the advance." The Phoenix cites government contra...
10/04/2026

Today in Herreshoff history: October 4, 1895

The town of Bristol is "on the advance." The Phoenix cites government contracts at HMCo. as well as the expanding plant as two of the reasons Bristol can anticipate "excellent prospects for business and enterprise" in the coming years. HMCo. also gets a visit from CUSHING (HMCo. #152) and a number of torpedo station officers.

📸 CUSHING (HMCo. #152); image courtesy the US Navy archives

Today in Herreshoff history: October 3, 1874N.G.H., brother Lewis and the good little ship RIVIERA return from Europe! T...
10/03/2026

Today in Herreshoff history: October 3, 1874

N.G.H., brother Lewis and the good little ship RIVIERA return from Europe! This is very exciting news, for the brothers have been gone for quite some time. RIVIERA was the 16' sloop N.G.H. designed and built in 1874 in France with Lewis' help, and the brothers were able to bring the little boat back to the States with them after a fairly epic camp-cruising adventure through Europe. They had been abroad since the spring of 1873, according to the Phoenix. Read about it in the Phoenix archives, or in N.G.H.'s own words in the book Recollections and Other Writings. The same page of the Phoenix describes J.B.H.’s steamer VISION (HMCo. #14) cruising to Providence to show the lovely people her "wonderful power of navigation"... before running out of coal.

📸 A wonderful cyanotype of RIVIERA on the ramp at the Love Rock's boathouse, where the little boat lived out its days until its destruction in the Hurricane of 1938; image from the HMM photo archive.

10/02/2026

Coming out from behind the marketing desk (and behind the camera) to bring you this very important sturgeon encounter 🐟👀

Pretty rare sighting today! Stay tuned to learn more 🤩

Today in Herreshoff history: October 2, 1896The Phoenix reports that HMCo. has secured contracts for three 20 knot torpe...
10/02/2026

Today in Herreshoff history: October 2, 1896

The Phoenix reports that HMCo. has secured contracts for three 20 knot torpedo boats, though this scoop turns out to be a bit too hasty to be entirely accurate, the three torpedo boats in question are MORRIS (HMCo. #190), TALBOT (HMCo. #191) and GWIN (HMCo. #192). Additionally, an old building is coming down and a new building going up on Burnside St. behind the HMCo. machine shop to make space for the new contracts. HMCo. moves fast!

📸 MORRIS (HMCo. #190), possibly on a trial trip; note N.G.H. profile onboard! Image from the HMM photo archive
📸 GWIN (HMCo. #192) on a speed trial; image from the HMM photo archive
📸 TALBOT (HMCo. #191) photographed by Stebbins in 1910

Today in Herreshoff history: October 1, 1891📸 The groundbreaking GLORIANA, HMCo. #411, pictured in 1891; image courtesy...
10/01/2026

Today in Herreshoff history: October 1, 1891

📸 The groundbreaking GLORIANA, HMCo. #411, pictured in 1891; image courtesy the Library of Congress digital archives.

The New York Sun published an article shortly after GLORIANA's 1891 launch and described her prospects as follows:

"In many respects [the 46-foot class] will be the hottest class ever seen in this country, and in interesting features it surpasses even the 40-foot class, which has been the leading feature in yachting for two seasons. ... Mr. Herreshoff has given his boat longer overhangs in proportion to load water line length than have ever been seen before, and with full lines forward, he has produced a most novel racing craft. She has a raking stern post like the Burgess boats but rockers up at the heel, and with greatest draught forward of the heel the keel from there takes a straight shoot for the water line forward, giving her a peculiar profile below the water line. Owners of other 46-footers seem to be afraid of the Herreshoff boat. She is owned and will be sailed by E. D. Morgan, her owner, and at present before any races have been sailed, this boat is feared by all the rest of the yachtsmen in the class. Before it was known that Nat Herreshoff had designed a 46-footer, Commodore Newbury D. Lawton of the Atlantic Yacht Club voiced the sentiments of a majority of the yachtsmen here when he said, warily: 'Keep your eye on Gen. Paine,' but to-day yachtsmen warn everybody to look oat for Nat Herreshoff. The Gloriana, for that is her name, has been sailing in Newport Harbor for more than a week, and ought to be in good shape for the Atlantic yacht Club's annual regatta June 16..."

This month in Herreshoff history: September 1920"Quite recently, in overhauling some old papers, I ran across a battered...
09/30/2026

This month in Herreshoff history: September 1920

"Quite recently, in overhauling some old papers, I ran across a battered and weatherbeaten notebook of 1920..."

The battered notebook in question belonged to legendary sailor and America's Cup Hall of Fame inductee, C. Sherman Hoyt. In an article for the September 1934 issue ("America's Cup Number"!) of Yachting magazine, the famous yachtsman reflected on the experience of being the N.Y.Y.C. observer in the 1920 America's Cup races. That year, Sir Thomas Lipton's SHAMROCK IV was pitted against the the HMCo.-built RESOLUTE. Hoyt served as the American representative aboard SHAMROCK IV for the duration of the series. In the end, RESOLUTE (HMCo. #725) prevailed. The bulk of the piece is a straight transcription from the notebook mentioned above. It is a candid blow-by-blow account of Hoyt's real-time observations throughout the series, with some additional annotations added from his reports provided to the N.Y.Y.C. after the series end.

Address

1 Burnside Street
Bristol, RI
02809

Opening Hours

Tuesday 10am - 5pm
Wednesday 10am - 5pm
Thursday 10am - 5pm
Friday 10am - 5pm
Saturday 10am - 5pm
Sunday 12pm - 5pm

Telephone

+14012535000

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