Staten Island Museum

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Staten Island Museum, officially the Staten Island Institute of Arts & Sciences, is Staten Island’s oldest cultural institution and the last general‑interest museum in New York City. It started in 1881 when local naturalists pooled their collections, and it opened to the public in 1908. The museum is on Snug Harbor at 1000 Richmond Terrace, St. George, Staten Island, and is reachable by the S62 and S44 NYC buses.

The museum has three main collections:
- Natural Sciences: more than 500,000 specimens, including birds, nests and eggs, insects, fossils, shells, and mounted animals.
- Fine Art: works from ancient to modern times, representing many cultures, with a focus on works by Staten Island artists.
- History Archives & Library: maps, photos, early films and audio, documents, and historical objects dating back to the 17th century.

Important items include land grants with seals from Charles II (1674) and William III (1696), and a 1776 document signed by William Howe.

Why it matters:
- It’s often called a “Mini‑Smithsonian” for its broad mix of arts, science, and local history.
- It helped found other local institutions like the New York Botanical Garden, the Staten Island Zoo, the Staten Island Historical Society, and the Staten Island Children’s Museum.
- It has run bird counts with the Audubon Society every year since 1908.
- The museum serves about 80,000 visitors annually with cross‑disciplinary exhibitions.

Recent history:
- The museum reopened at Snug Harbor in September 2015. It runs the Art Conservation Studio and the Staten Island History Center & Archives at Snug Harbor.
- Building A was renovated for about $23 million, adding more than 25,000 square feet, with more space planned in Building B (Bio‑Diversity) in 2022.
- The museum aims to be accessible, diverse, and technologically advanced, with strong collections management, exhibitions, education, and public programming.

What you’ll see now:
- Staten Island Scene/Seen, a three‑century look at Staten Island through commissioned works and Hudson River School landscape paintings from the collection.
- A life‑size mastodon replica greets visitors, reflecting the museum’s natural history focus.