*** Welcome to piglix ***

Arabia Steamboat Museum

Arabia Steamboat Museum
Established November 13, 1991 (1991-11-13)
Location River Market, Kansas City, Missouri, United States
Coordinates 39°06′35″N 94°34′53″W / 39.109778°N 94.581485°W / 39.109778; -94.581485Coordinates: 39°06′35″N 94°34′53″W / 39.109778°N 94.581485°W / 39.109778; -94.581485
Type History museum
Collections Cargo of steamboat that sank in 1856
Collection size 200 tons
Public transit access MAX City Market Stop, KCATA
Nearest parking On site (no charge)
Website 1856.com

The Arabia Steamboat Museum is a history museum in Kansas City, Missouri housing artifacts salvaged from the Arabia, a steamboat that sank in the Missouri River in 1856. The 30,000-square-foot museum opened on November 13, 1991 in the Kansas City River Market. The partners of River Salvage Inc., who excavated the Arabia and opened the museum, claim to have the largest single collection of pre-Civil War artifacts in the world.

Visitors to the museum receive a 20-minute guided tour explaining its sinking and recovery. This is followed by a 13-minute film called Treasures of the Steamboat Arabia, shown in the theater. Next, they view the artifacts on display, as well as an open preservation lab where staff members work on cleaning the many artifacts in storage. Finally, they walk a 171-foot-long full-scale reproduction of the Arabia's main deck, where they can see archival footage of the excavation process and more information about its history, along with the original boilers, engine, anchor, and the skeleton of a mule. Also on display are the 6-ton stern and a reconstructed paddle wheel. The museum additionally offers a gift shop, snack bar, and meeting space.

The museum's collection consists of hundreds of thousands of items intended for daily life on the frontier including more than 4,000 pairs of boots and shoes, 247 hats, 235 ax heads, 29 jars of pickles, 328 pocket knives, and one children's doll. All are from 1856 or earlier; most of them were brand-new merchandise heading to general stores on the frontier. The Wall Street Journal called it "an Aladdin's cave of objects from the year 1856."


...
Wikipedia

...