The Noble Maritime Collection

The Noble Maritime Collection Welcome friends and fans of John A. Noble and Sailors' Snug Harbor! Noble, and to preserve Robbins Reef Lighthouse and the history of Sailors’ Snug Harbor.

The mission of the Noble Maritime Collection, an art and history museum in Staten Island, New York, is to present exhibitions and programs that celebrate the working waterfront of New York Harbor in the tradition of distinguished artist John A.

Join us this tomorrow, Sunday, June 22 at 11 AM for the third of six lectures in Pat Salmon History's "Historic Neighbor...
06/21/2025

Join us this tomorrow, Sunday, June 22 at 11 AM for the third of six lectures in Pat Salmon History's "Historic Neighborhoods of Staten Island" series. This lecture will focus on Stapleton. This community was a “reservoir of Teutonic Beer” owing to the presence of several German breweries that thrived off the crystal-clear water of local artesian wells. Discover the ethnic groups that labored at these and other manufactories. Their hard work helped to produce some of the most splendid architecture found on Staten Island. The lecture will also discuss the communities’ maritime history and its effects on the growth of Stapleton, as well as the professional football team that called Stapleton its home.

Doors open at 10:50 AM.

(George Bechtel Brewery 1886 Judsons Illustrated)

We wish everyone at the Coney Island Mermaid Parade today a fun-filled celebration filled with splashy costumes, creativ...
06/21/2025

We wish everyone at the Coney Island Mermaid Parade today a fun-filled celebration filled with splashy costumes, creativity, and community!

Famed author Herman Melville uses the term "mermaid" in his 1845 novel Typee as a metaphor for the young women of the Pacific island Nuka Hiva that board the whaling ship Dolly when it anchors at bay. He wrote, "The Dolly was fairly captured; and never I will say was vessel carried before by such a dashing and irresistible party of boarders! The ship taken, we could not do otherwise than yield ourselves prisoners, and for the whole period that she remained in the bay, the Dolly, as well as her crew, were completely in the hands of the mermaids."

Melville came to Sailors’ Snug Harbor often to visit his brother, Thomas Melville, who was the third Governor of the institution in the years 1867-1884. Today best known for the novel Moby Dick, it was actually Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life, first published in London as "Narrative of a Four Months’ Residence Among the Natives of a Valley of the Marquesas Islands" that made him an overnight sensation and remained the most popular work during his lifetime.

Pop into the shop for these masterworks of American literature, or perhaps just indulge your inner-mermaid with some natural south-seas inspired self-care.

🖼️: “Jeune Fille de l'lle Madisson,” hand colored woodcut of Piteenee, a young woman of Nuku Hiva, Marquesas Islands, from Auguste Wahlen's “Moeurs, Usages et Costumes de tous les Peuples du Monde,” (Manners, Customs and Costumes of the People of the World), 1845. Piteenee was the 18-year-old granddaughter of Taiohae chief Gattanewa, and the consort of David Porter, Captain of the USS Essex in the country’s fledgling U. S. Navy during the war of 1812.

The Noble Maritime Collection will be closed on Thursday, June 19 in celebration of Juneteenth.  Please plan to attend S...
06/18/2025

The Noble Maritime Collection will be closed on Thursday, June 19 in celebration of Juneteenth. Please plan to attend SI Community Alliance's 5th Annual Juneteenth Freedom Festival this Saturday, June 21 at Snug Harbor Cultural Center and Botanical Garden. While you're on site, come cool off at Noble museum and see our new exhibition We Who Are Weary, which includes new research about the people of color who lived and worked at Sailors' Snug Harbor.

(Photos of resident sailors courtesy of the Trustees of the Sailors' Snug Harbor in the City of New York.)

Join us this Sunday, June 22 at 11 AM for the third of six lectures in Pat Salmon History's "Historic Neighborhoods of S...
06/17/2025

Join us this Sunday, June 22 at 11 AM for the third of six lectures in Pat Salmon History's "Historic Neighborhoods of Staten Island" series. This lecture will focus on Stapleton. This community was a “reservoir of Teutonic Beer” owing to the presence of several German breweries that thrived off the crystal-clear water of local artesian wells. Discover the ethnic groups that labored at these and other manufactories. Their hard work helped to produce some of the most splendid architecture found on Staten Island. The lecture will also discuss the communities’ maritime history and its effects on the growth of Stapleton, as well as the professional football team that called Stapleton its home.

Doors open at 10:50 AM.

(Horrmann Castle on Grymes Hill overlooking Stapleton; postcard by Grimshaw, NYPL)

Visit Staten Island York City Department of Cultural Affairs Downtown Staten Island

A month from today, on Thursday, July 17, join us for the Exhibition Opening - Bill Murphy: Waterfront Tales 1975-2025 f...
06/17/2025

A month from today, on Thursday, July 17, join us for the Exhibition Opening - Bill Murphy: Waterfront Tales 1975-2025 from 6 to 8 PM. This exhibition will be a retrospective of the renowned Staten Island artist’s explorations of the local waterfront over 50 years. This work—like that of the museum’s namesake, John A. Noble—preserves vestiges of New York City and its waterways which are forever changing with time, tides, and development.

RSVP for the opening reception at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/exhibition-opening-bill-murphy-waterfront-tales-1975-2025-registration-1378172855109

Also mark your calendar for a gallery talk by the artist on Sunday, September 14 at 2 PM. The exhibition will be on view until January 18, 2026.

(Bill Murphy, New Construction, charcoal and pastel on paper, 2016, 22” x 60”)

On this Father's Day, here is one of the strangest objects in our collection—the death mask of post-impressionist artist...
06/15/2025

On this Father's Day, here is one of the strangest objects in our collection—the death mask of post-impressionist artist John "Wichita Bill" Noble (1874-1934), father of the museum's namesake, John A. Noble (1913-83). It was cast in plaster shortly after he died on January 6, 1934 by Herman Walthausen (c. 1876–1962), a pupil of Augustus St. Gaudens (sculptor of the statue of Sailors' Snug Harbor founder Captain Robert Richard Randall) who went on to assist in the creation of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. The mask had been broken , but we had it restored for the museum's 2007 exhibition, Father & Son. In the before picture, you can just make out the shredded The New York Times from the day Wichita Bill died stuffed inside it.

Our next exhibition, Bill Murphy: Waterfront Tales 1975–2025, is a retrospective of the renowned Staten Island artist’s ...
06/14/2025

Our next exhibition, Bill Murphy: Waterfront Tales 1975–2025, is a retrospective of the renowned Staten Island artist’s explorations of the local waterfront over 50 years. This work—like that of the museum’s namesake, John A. Noble—preserves vestiges of New York City and its waterways which are forever changing with time, tides, and development.

We invite you to attend Exhibition Opening - Bill Murphy: Waterfront Tales 1975-2025 on Thursday, July 17 from 6 to 8 PM. And mark your calendar for a gallery talk by the artist on Sunday, September 14 at 2 PM. The exhibition will be on view until January 18, 2026. Postcards and more information to follow.

(Bill Murphy, Atlantic Salt, acrylic on canvas, 19" x 19" x 1")

Father’s Day is upon us, and this Sunday, June 15, visit the museum for a Sea Shanty Sessions from 2 to 4 PM. This fun a...
06/13/2025

Father’s Day is upon us, and this Sunday, June 15, visit the museum for a Sea Shanty Sessions from 2 to 4 PM. This fun and family-friendly sing-along of time-honored sailors’ work songs is led by our friends from the Folk Music Society of New York.

Visit Staten Island New York City Department of Cultural Affairs Downtown Staten Island

(Photo by Michael McWeeney)

An anonymous museumgoer did nice work with colored pencils on this page from our Sailors' Snug Harbor coloring book feat...
06/07/2025

An anonymous museumgoer did nice work with colored pencils on this page from our Sailors' Snug Harbor coloring book featuring a resident named Captain Grey—who now wears green! Look for photographs of retired sailors in our new exhibition We Who Are Weary, now on view on the first floor in the Writing Room. And then head up to the second floor, where coloring books and sheets, games, and other activities are always on our classroom tables—so please feel welcome to sit for a while and be creative! We offer pay-what-you-wish admission during regular museum hours, Wednesday through Sunday, 12 to 5 PM.

Second grade students and teachers from Staten Island's PS 31 recently visited the Atlantic Salt, Inc. shipyard at 561 R...
06/06/2025

Second grade students and teachers from Staten Island's PS 31 recently visited the Atlantic Salt, Inc. shipyard at 561 Richmond Terrace as part of the museum's Maritime Careers of New York Harbor program, currently funded by the Flagstar Bank Foundation. Terminal Manager Brian DeForest led the group on a path through the 450,000-ton mountain of salt granules that were imported from Chile. The salt comes in on a cargo ship called a dry bulk carrier, and is used to melt ice on the roadways in winter. After the tour, the students had fun playing on a small mound of salt made by the workers, and enjoyed the ever-changing views of New York Harbor.

For more information about the Maritime Careers of New York Harbor program, contact Director of Programs Dawn Daniels at [email protected] or visit noblemaritime.org/education

(Photos by Dawn Daniels)

The special exhibition Noble Industrial closes today, and it will be your last chance to view John A. Noble's Candles of...
06/01/2025

The special exhibition Noble Industrial closes today, and it will be your last chance to view John A. Noble's Candles of the Kill (oil on canvas, started c, 1953, reworked through 1965), which is considered by many to be his masterpiece. It is held in a private collection and will return to its owners. Candles of the Kill depicts the Tidewater Oil Refinery in operation in Bayonne, NJ in the early 20th century. Note the gas flares, used to burn off excess natural gas associated with the oil production process. You can still see flares like these as part of the modern industrial landscape off the New Jersey Turnpike in Linden and Elizabeth, NJ. Although Noble worked on this composition in the mid-20th century, the presence of the schooner on the Kill Van Kull indicates that it is set likely in the 1920s when he first worked as a sailor as a teenager. It captures the industrial landscape familiar to modern viewers juxtaposed against a vessel from the Age of Sail, bridging the two major themes of Noble’s oeuvre.

This is the last weekend to see the special exhibition, Noble Industrial.  While John A. Noble (1913–1983) is known for ...
05/31/2025

This is the last weekend to see the special exhibition, Noble Industrial. While John A. Noble (1913–1983) is known for having chronicled the last days of the Age of Sail through his art, he was also an advocate for the modern maritime industries that populated New York’s working waterfront in the 20th century. This exhibition of rarely seen lithographs, paintings, and drawings—48 in total—contextualizes Noble and his relationship with industry within the century in which he lived and worked. He produced most of these pieces by way of commissions, which he actively sought from large companies, particularly in the early 1950s. These compositions demonstrate Noble’s dedication to accuracy and passion for preserving maritime history. As a result, his oeuvre depicts as much steel as it does wood, as many diesel vessels as schooners, and as much active building as it does wrecks and decay.

Address

1000 Richmond Ter, Bldg D
New York, NY
10301

Opening Hours

Wednesday 12pm - 5pm
Thursday 12pm - 5pm
Friday 12pm - 5pm
Saturday 12pm - 5pm
Sunday 12pm - 5pm

Telephone

(718) 447-6490

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