Bring your grown-ups to the museum to hear stories about mermaids, pirates, ships, and the sea! Listen to staff favorites or help choose from a treasure-chest of books to hear different stories every week! Families are encouraged to come early or stay after to look at art and model ships in the galleries and color and play games in the classrooms.

CloseKnit, our longest-running public program, is free and open to knitters of all skill levels. We donate the goods members make to community charities including the The Seamen's Church Institute's Christmas at Sea program and the Elizabeth Coalition to House the Homeless. Consider joining us, or tell a knitter that you know!

Bring your grown-ups to the museum to hear stories about mermaids, pirates, ships, and the sea! Listen to staff favorites or help choose from a treasure-chest of books to hear different stories every week! Families are encouraged to come early or stay after to look at art and model ships in the galleries and color and play games in the classrooms.

Join us on Sunday, August 24 at 1 PM for Dr. Peter van Alfen’s lecture, The Tea Barons of Staten Island: Clippers, Canton, and Chopped Coins.

In the decades before the Civil War, the trade between New York City and Canton (modern Guangzhou), China took off, accelerated by the high demand in the U.S. for Chinese tea, the Chinese demand for silver coins from the Americas, and by the development of an exceedingly fast and graceful sailing vessel, the clipper. Trading firms based in New York established outposts in Canton to ensure the continuous flow of trade, build and commission clippers, and compete against one another (and the British and their clippers!) for the substantial profits that this trade brought. Many of those involved in the trade then used their tea-born wealth to build estates and grand houses on Staten Island.

In this talk, Dr. van Alfen will explore the origins of this trade, the development of the clipper, with special emphasis on those ships represented by models in the Noble’s collection, and the Staten Island tea barons and their manors. In addition, he will discuss the role of coinage from the Americas in this trade and the Chinese practice of “chopping” coins with a focus on a recent gift of rare chopped coins to the American Numismatic Society. 

Bring your grown-ups to the museum to hear stories about mermaids, pirates, ships, and the sea! Listen to staff favorites or help choose from a treasure-chest of books to hear different stories every week! Families are encouraged to come early or stay after to look at art and model ships in the galleries and color and play games in the classrooms.

Led by the Folk Music Society of New York, this program is really gaining in popularity and offers a great opportunity to experience authentic, time-honored maritime songs in an appropriately historic setting. The sessions are free and family friendly, and you are encouraged to sing along if the mood strikes you! If you can't make it this weekend, we hold a session on the third Sunday of every month.

Bring your grown-ups to the museum to hear stories about mermaids, pirates, ships, and the sea! Listen to staff favorites or help choose from a treasure-chest of books to hear different stories every week! Families are encouraged to come early or stay after to look at art and model ships in the galleries and color and play games in the classrooms.

Bring your grown-ups to the museum to hear stories about mermaids, pirates, ships, and the sea! Listen to staff favorites or help choose from a treasure-chest of books to hear different stories every week! Families are encouraged to come early or stay after to look at art and model ships in the galleries and color and play games in the classrooms.

Bring your grown-ups to the museum to hear stories about mermaids, pirates, ships, and the sea! Listen to staff favorites or help choose from a treasure-chest of books to hear different stories every week! Families are encouraged to come early or stay after to look at art and model ships in the galleries and color and play games in the classrooms.

Join us on Sunday, July 27 at 12 PM for the sixth and final lecture in historian Patricia Salmon’s Historic Neighborhoods of Staten Island series. Clay was king in Kreischerville, as was Balthazar Kreischer from the mid-nineteenth century onward. Learn about the community now known as Charleston from the days of the Lenape to the massive clay pits that yielded enough product for thousands of bricks. Churches, cemeteries, schools and the immigrants who settled and inhabited this oasis of industry will also be discussed, as will the always fascinating Clay Pit Ponds State Park Preserve, New York City's only State Park Preserve.

This event is FREE with museum admission.

Bring your grown-ups to the museum to hear stories about mermaids, pirates, ships, and the sea! Listen to staff favorites or help choose from a treasure-chest of books to hear different stories every week! Families are encouraged to come early or stay after to look at art and model ships in the galleries and color and play games in the classrooms.

Led by the Folk Music Society of New York, this program is really gaining in popularity and offers a great opportunity to experience authentic, time-honored maritime songs in an appropriately historic setting. The sessions are free and family friendly, and you are encouraged to sing along if the mood strikes you! If you can't make it this weekend, we hold a session on the third Sunday of every month.

Join us on Sunday, July 20 at 12 PM for the fifth of six lectures in historian Patricia Salmon’s Historic Neighborhoods of Staten Island series. This lecture takes a relaxing look at Tompkinsville and Saint George by discussing architecture, the Saint George/New Brighton Historic District, industrial history, religious groups, recreational hot spots, educational establishments, famous residents, Staten Island's baseball past, the Quarantine Station and the National Lighthouse Museum. Did you know a person was actually canonized to create the community name of Saint George? This will be covered along with the history of the iconic Staten Island Ferry. 

This event is FREE with museum admission.

Bring your grown-ups to the museum to hear stories about mermaids, pirates, ships, and the sea! Listen to staff favorites or help choose from a treasure-chest of books to hear different stories every week! Families are encouraged to come early or stay after to look at art and model ships in the galleries and color and play games in the classrooms.

Join us for an opening reception on Thursday, July 17, 2025, 6–8 PM! The Noble Maritime Collection proudly presents a retrospective of renowned Staten Island artist Bill Murphy’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.

Bring your grown-ups to the museum to hear stories about mermaids, pirates, ships, and the sea! Listen to staff favorites or help choose from a treasure-chest of books to hear different stories every week! Families are encouraged to come early or stay after to look at art and model ships in the galleries and color and play games in the classrooms.

Bring your grown-ups to the museum to hear stories about mermaids, pirates, ships, and the sea! Listen to staff favorites or help choose from a treasure-chest of books to hear different stories every week! Families are encouraged to come early or stay after to look at art and model ships in the galleries and color and play games in the classrooms.

CloseKnit, our longest-running public program, is free and open to knitters of all skill levels. We donate the goods members make to community charities including the The Seamen's Church Institute's Christmas at Sea program and the Elizabeth Coalition to House the Homeless. Consider joining us, or tell a knitter that you know!

Join us on Sunday, June 29 at 12 PM for the fourth of six lectures in historian Patricia Salmon’s Historic Neighborhoods of Staten Island series. This lecture will focus on New Dorp which was settled in 1671. The original village center of New Dorp "gradually moved away from the shore" and is now more than 500 feet into the lower bay of the New York Harbor. In other words, it is underwater! What other secrets does New Dorp hold? You will find out as this lecture covers the Vanderbilt family, nineteenth century racetracks, Civil War encampments, historic hotels and houses, prominent personalities, Cedar Grove, movie houses, cemeteries, and important events in New Dorp history.

This event is FREE with museum admission.

Bring your grown-ups to the museum to hear stories about mermaids, pirates, ships, and the sea! Listen to staff favorites or help choose from a treasure-chest of books to hear different stories every week! Families are encouraged to come early or stay after to look at art and model ships in the galleries and color and play games in the classrooms.

Join us on Sunday, June 22 at 11 AM for the third of six lectures in historian Patricia Salmon’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. 

This event is FREE with museum admission.

Bring your grown-ups to the museum to hear stories about mermaids, pirates, ships, and the sea! Listen to staff favorites or help choose from a treasure-chest of books to hear different stories every week! Families are encouraged to come early or stay after to look at art and model ships in the galleries and color and play games in the classrooms.

Led by the Folk Music Society of New York, this program is really gaining in popularity and offers a great opportunity to experience authentic, time-honored maritime songs in an appropriately historic setting. The sessions are free and family friendly, and you are encouraged to sing along if the mood strikes you! If you can't make it this weekend, we hold a session on the third Sunday of every month.

Bring your grown-ups to the museum to hear stories about mermaids, pirates, ships, and the sea! Listen to staff favorites or help choose from a treasure-chest of books to hear different stories every week! Families are encouraged to come early or stay after to look at art and model ships in the galleries and color and play games in the classrooms.

Bring your grown-ups to the museum to hear stories about mermaids, pirates, ships, and the sea! Listen to staff favorites or help choose from a treasure-chest of books to hear different stories every week! Families are encouraged to come early or stay after to look at art and model ships in the galleries and color and play games in the classrooms.

CloseKnit, our longest-running public program, is free and open to knitters of all skill levels. We donate the goods members make to community charities including the The Seamen's Church Institute's Christmas at Sea program and the Elizabeth Coalition to House the Homeless. Consider joining us, or tell a knitter that you know!

Bring your grown-ups to the museum to hear stories about mermaids, pirates, ships, and the sea! Listen to staff favorites or help choose from a treasure-chest of books to hear different stories every week! Families are encouraged to come early or stay after to look at art and model ships in the galleries and color and play games in the classrooms.

We are excited to announce the opening of our latest exhibition, We Who Are Weary, about the history of the museum’s home, Sailor’s Snug Harbor. This new exhibition—staged in the restored Writing Room, an original Sailors’ Snug Harbor amenity—will present a fresh, people-focused perspective on the history of the venerable, 19th-century retirement home for mariners. Art, artifacts, and documents on display will convey typical, yet fascinating aspects of life at the institution, while also highlighting new research about the sailors and employees of color who lived and worked there. The opening reception on the evening of Thursday, May 29 will begin at 6 PM.

This exhibition was made possible, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council; the New York State Council on the Arts, with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature; the State of New York and the National Maritime Heritage Grants Program, administered by the National Park Service, Department of the Interior; and the TKF Spirit Fund. (Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this exhibition do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the State of New York or Department of the Interior.)

Join us on Sunday, May 25 at 12 PM for the second of six lectures in historian Patricia Salmon’s Historic Neighborhoods of Staten Island series. This lecture will focus on Prince’s Bay and will examine little known facts about the Seguine family, the Burke-Seguine Mansion, and the Manee-Seguine Homestead. In addition, it will cover the background stories of Mount Loretto, S. S. White, the oyster industry, the Quarantine Cemetery, Wolfe’s Pond Park, Richmond Memorial Hospital, the Purple Martin Colony of Lemon Creek and more.

This event is FREE with museum admission.

Bring your grown-ups to the museum to hear stories about mermaids, pirates, ships, and the sea! Listen to staff favorites or help choose from a treasure-chest of books to hear different stories every week! Families are encouraged to come early or stay after to look at art and model ships in the galleries and color and play games in the classrooms.