Mystic Seaport Museum is the nation’s largest maritime museum. Founded in 1929 to gather and preserve the rapidly disappearing artifacts of America’s seafaring past, the Museum has grown to become a national center for research and education with the mission to inspire an enduring connection to the American maritime experience. The Museum’s grounds cover 19 acres on the Mystic River in Mystic, CT and include a recreated 19th century coastal village, a working shipyard, exhibit halls, and state-of-the-art artifact storage facilities. The Museum is home to more than 500 historic watercraft, including four National Historic Landmark vessels, most notably the 1841 whaleship Charles W. Morgan, America’s oldest commercial ship still in existence. With a full-time staff of 150 that swells to 350 during the summer season, the Museum hosts over 250,000 visitors annually. Mystic Seaport employs a diverse staff of scholars, librarians, historic interpreters, educators, scientists, musicians, and skilled artisans. A stroll through the historic village transports visitors back to the mid-1800s where they can experience firsthand from staff historians, storytellers, musicians, and craftspeople just what life was like to earn one's living from the sea. In the Henry B. du Pont Preservation Shipyard, they can watch shipwrights keeping the skills and techniques of traditional shipbuilding alive as they restore and maintain the Museum’s watercraft collection. The Museum’s 41,000 sq. ft. Collections Research Center (CRC) offers access to more than 2 million artifacts and is also home to the G.W. Blunt White Library, a 75,000-volume research library where scholars from around the world come to study America’s maritime history. For more than 80 years, visitors, students, and scholars have turned to Mystic Seaport to preserve and interpret America’s maritime experience. The Museum’s commitment to that mission is as strong as ever.

The mission of The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk is to ignite a connection to Long Island Sound and the ocean to enrich the lives of all people and inspire action to protect our blue planet. For over 35 years, the Aquarium has played a significant role in shaping the landscape of Norwalk and the region. The second largest family attraction in Connecticut, and 50 miles from New York City, the Aquarium hosts nearly 450,000 guests annually. Its primary exhibits take guests on a voyage from the shallow salt marshes and estuaries to the depths of the Long Island Sound and the ocean beyond, culminating with habitats for sharks and harbor seals. Altogether, the Aquarium is home to more than 7,500 animals and 300 species in 75 exhibits. A new 4D Theater offers a unique sensory film experience for guests. Its education programs introduce approximately 80,000 students, campers and scouts to marine and STEM education. The Aquarium is recognized as a top aquarium in the nation, and is accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. It is an active participant in the local and regional community. The strength of the Aquarium is its 65 full-time staff, and part-time and seasonal staff, in addition to our volunteers.

The Suffolk County Vanderbilt Museum — a unique combination of mansion, marine and natural history museum, planetarium and park — is dedicated to the education and enjoyment of the people of Long Island and beyond.