Directory: History – Museums

museums about steamboating and the rivers

  • Alton Museum of History and Art – Alton, IL, is featuring a small river room including a pilot house replica and numerous memorabilia of the Eagle Packet boats and the Streckfus steamers.
  • Anacortes History Museum – W. T. Preston (snagboat, museum); Anacortes, WA
  • Arabia Steamboat Museum – homepage of the steamboat Arabia excavation site
  • Arkansas River Historical Society – Arkansas River Historical Society, Catoosa, OK. The history of the Arkansas River and McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System, regional benefits of the waterway, steamboat lore, cargo shipped on the waterway, and archeology. Of note is the photographic archive, waterway memorabilia, the collection of Native American artifacts collected along the Arkansas, and a motorized model of a Lock and Dam. The website is also offering more information about the Arkansas River.
  • Bertrand (museum) (PDF) – Omaha, DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge, IA
  • Buffalo Bill Museum – LeClaire, Iowa; boat: Lone Star
  • Cincinnati Museum Center – The Cincinnati Museum Center’s History Museum includes many aspects of the steam boat and river trade during the Ninteenth Century. This includes information and exhibits on Jacob Strader, the Fulton Boat Yards, the Civil War Brown Water Navy gunboats and a recreated Packet steamboat The Queen of The West. The Cincinnati Historical Society Library includes many river and steamboat related primary documents.
  • Columbia Gorge Interpretive Center – Stevenson, WA, is mainly featuring the history of the Columbia Gorge including the river transportation on steamboats and modern towboats.
  • Connecticut River Museum Steamboat Dock – Essex, CT
  • Eppleton Hall (steam, museum: San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park) – San Francisco, CA
  • Geo. M. Verity (former Rhododendron, former Thorpe, museum) – (Mississippi River); Keokuk, IA
  • Hood River County Historical Museum – Hood River, OR, is featuring the local history. Displays include a paddlewheel outside the museum.
  • Howard Steamboat Museum – Website of the Howard Steamboat Museum, Jeffersonville, IN.
  • Hudson River Maritime Museum – Kingston, NY, dedicated to the preservation of the maritime history of the Hudson River Valley. Including information about Robert Fulton’s Clermont and other Hudson River steamboats.
  • Mississippi River Museum – including the William M. Black – Mississippi River (Ice Harbor); Dubuque, IA
  • Mud Island River Park, Memphis, TN – includes a Mississippi River Museum and the River Walk, a 5-block long replica of the Lower Mississippi River from Cairo, IL, to New Orleans, LA.
  • Museum of Lake Minnetonka – operates the historic Steamboat Minnehaha on Lake Minnetonka, near St. Paul, MN.
  • Mystic Seaport Museum – Mystic Seaport Museum’s Ships Plans Division cares for nearly 100,000 drawings of ships, yachts, small craft, and such miscellaneous maritime items as lighthouses, marine engines, and details of ship decoration.
  • National Great Rivers Museum – located next to Melvin Price Lock and Dam near East Alton, IL.
  • Nenana (museum) – AK
  • New Madrid Historical Museum – New Madrid, MO.
  • Ohio River Museum – W. P. Snyder (Ohio River museum) – Muskingum River; Marietta, OH
  • Old Court House Museum – Vicksburg, MS. The museum is featuring some remains of the towboat Sprague and the raceing boats Natchez and Rob.’t E. Lee.
  • Oregon Maritime Center And Museum – Portland, OR (sternwheel steam tugboat Portland)
  • Point Pleasant River Museum – Point Pleasant, WV. Opened in 2003 this museum is offering a lot of river history. It’s featuring a lot of river artifacts, a pilot house replica, numerous models, all located in the historic “Old Nease Building”.
  • River Discovery Museum – Paducah, KY. The museum includes various water-filled and interactive exhibits like a working lock and dam model, a build-a-river exhibit or an dredging exhibit. Many steamboat models are exhibited including a big model of the Delta Queen. A 13 min film about the river is shown in the state-of-art theater.
  • River Music Experience – a multi media museum featuring the music along the Mississippi River, Blues, Rock ‘n Roll, Jazz, Gospel, Country, Cajun and Zydeco. The museum includes a 12-foot model of the steamer Capitol. River Music Experience, Davenport, IA.
  • San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park – (boat: Eppleton Hall), San Francisco, CA
  • Southeast Missouri State University Museum – Cape Girardeau, MO. Featuring a special exhibit of artifacts from the former Golden Eagle Museum in 2005. A new building will be built for these artifacts.
  • Tennessee River Museum – Savannah, TN, covering the history of the Tennessee River, including a pilot house replica.
  • Ticonderoga – Shelburne Museum – including the historic steamboat Ticonderoga
  • Tunica Riverpark Museum – Tunica, MS. Opened in 2003 this museum is part of the new Tunica Riverpark including the riverboat Tunica Queen and the Eco-Trail. Two floors offer an 8-min film about the Mississippi River, Aquariums, a Map Room, Steamboats and the 19th Century, Civil War, a River Navigation Simulator, a Diving Bell Simulator and many more. The third floor is serving as an Observation Deck to watch the river.
  • U. S. Montgomery (snagboat, Tom Bevill Visitor Center) – Tennessee Tombigbee Waterway; Pickensville, AL
  • Vicksburg Battlefield Museum – Vicksburg, MS, houses a Civil War diorama recreating the battles of the Siege of Vicksburg with 2500 miniature soldiers, the world’s largest collection of Civil War gunboat models, a thirty-minute presentation of “The Vanishing Glory”, a documentary about the Siege of Vicksburg in a theater constructed just for the movie, models of U.S. Navy vessels named for Mississippians and more.
  • Vicksburg National Military Park – (boat: USS Cairo), Vicksburg, MS
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