Camden Shipyard & Maritime Museum

The Museum has several focal points:

West Jersey Shipbuilding and Shipbuilder Communities:
The Museum has a particular interest in developing programs and exhibits in the following areas: local boat builders and ship builders, such as Camden’s giant New York Shipbuilding Corporation; and the planned shipbuilder communities of Fairview (1918), Brooklawn (1918), Audubon Park (circa1940) and Bellmawr Park (circa1940), among others.

Maritime Exploration:
The Museum has a special interest in developing programs and exhibits celebrating the quest to reach the North Pole by the internationally renowned Arctic explorers Admiral Robert and Mrs. Josephine Peary and Mr. Matthew Henson. This interest stems from the fact that both Robert Peary and Matthew Henson lived and worked locally and that local scientific institutions sponsored their famous Greenland expedition of 1891. Moreover, one of the buildings housing the Museum was constructed using ballast stones brought from Greenland in their ship the “Kite” after these explorations. A statue of the great African-American mariner and explorer, Mr. Matthew Henson (1866-1955), co-discoverer of the North Pole, was installed at the museum. This inspiring, larger-than-life statue of Henson and his Inuit dog “King” was designed by the renowned artist and sculptor Mr. John Giannotti and installed at the museum on April 6, 2009, a hundred years from the day Henson first reached the North Pole.

Director: Leslie Watson