BY TRAV S.D. | One seldom-observed outcome of natural disasters is that their repercussions can often last for years, long after the initial impact has left the headlines and the worst of the effects have faded from the forefront of the public consciousness. A case in point is the South Street Seaport Museum, one of New York City’s great cultural jewels, which was slammed by Hurricane Sandy on October 29, 2012, and has remained mostly closed to the public ever since. Or rather, had been until the March 17 opening of its first exhibition since the disaster: “Street of Ships: The Port and Its People.”
For nearly 300 years, from the early 17th century through the early 20th, the Manhattan neighborhood roughly bounded by Pearl Street and the East River was home to a thriving international port, characterized by docks crammed with sailing ships and nearby shops, warehouses, and offices to support the shipping industry. By the 1900s, steam replaced sail, ships grew larger, and only the port facilities on the Hudson River side could accommodate them. The South Street Seaport Museum was founded in 1967 to preserve and interpret the area’s history. The Museum’s multi-facility complex comprises galleries, performance spaces, a working 19th century print shop, a maritime library, a craft center, and a fleet of historic vessels.
When Hurricane Sandy struck, Lower Manhattan was one of the hardest hit areas in the city.
“The water outside [the Museum] on Fulton Street reached a level of six feet,” says the Museum’s Executive Director, Captain Jonathan Boulware (Boulware is a bona fide certified sea captain, hence the honorific). “On the one hand, we were extremely lucky in that none of our collections were damaged, and damage to the galleries themselves was superficial. On the other hand, we were unlucky in that much of our infrastructure — things like electrics, and heating and cooling systems, and the escalators — were destroyed.”
A combination of FEMA and New York State money helped to get their facilities back in shape, and now the fully-restored first floor atrium of the Museum houses “Street of Ships: The Port and Its People.” This small-scale exhibition provides a sampler of art and artifacts related to the Seaport’s role in world history, and an update on the Museum’s efforts at restoration. Paintings, photographs, lithographic prints and objects related to the port’s maritime, architectural and commercial history are on view. Among the more impressive items are a ship’s figurehead by master carver Sal Polisi, several ship models, a very large lightship bell, and an actual ship’s dingy.
My favorite section of the exhibition depicts innovators and entrepreneurs who led the way in helping New York achieve supremacy in a field long dominated by much older cities. Captain Peter Schermerhorn (1781-1852), founder of “New York’s First World Trade Center” is the man for whom Schermerhorn Row (the heart of the Museum itself) is named. Importer Abiel Abbot Low (1811-1893) was a pioneer in the China trade; the exhibition displays a 200-year-old porcelain punch bowl to illustrate the sort of items he brought to America. The Black Ball Line, founded by Quaker merchant Jeremiah Thompson (1734-1835), was path-breaking in operating the first regular trans-Atlantic packet service for both passengers and cargo. Israel Collins (1776-1831) and his son Edward Knight Collins (1802-1878, here represented by a wonderful Mathew Brady photograph) went the Black Ball Line one better by introducing steamships.
Another section of the exhibition concentrates on Bowne & Company Stationers and Bowne Printers, an integral component of the Museum’s complex since the beginning. Several 19th century printing presses, and many examples of the printers’ art are on view.
The cornerstone of the exhibition, and of the Museum’s current efforts in general, is devoted to the restoration of the 1885 sailing ship Wavertree. Called the “flagship” of the Museum’s fleet (the South Street Seaport owns five historic vessels), the Wavertree was essentially undamaged by Sandy, but was nonetheless in need of restoration. Currently in dry dock at Staten Island, she is nearing the end of a 15-month, $13 million, city-funded preservation effort. She is slated to return to the Seaport in July of this year, where she will once again be a centerpiece of the Museum’s educational programs. The Peking, a 1911 German four-masted barque long popular with fans of the Seaport, was sold to the German Port Museum in Hamburg in November 2015.
The South Street Seaport Museum has had to negotiate many a rogue wave over the years, including well-publicized financial problems, and the 1-2-3 punches of 9/11, the Great Recession and Hurricane Sandy. But it is one of New York City’s great cultural treasures. And for many aspects of New York’s art and history, it is, to this reviewer’s mind, the only game in town. “Street of Ships: The Port and Its People” is a timely reminder of this, and an eloquent case for why every New Yorker should support this museum.
“Street of Ships: The Port and Its People” is on view through 2016, at the South Street Seaport Museum (12 Fulton St., btw. South & Water Sts.). Admission: free for Museum members, $12 for adults; $8 for seniors (65+), Merchant Mariners, Active Duty Military & students (valid ID); $6 for kids (ages 6–17), free for children ages 5 and under. Museum hours: Wed.-Sun., 11am–5pm. For info & tickets, visit southstreetseaportmuseum.org or call 212-748-8600.
