Staten Island Museum
Photo: Own work — CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Established in 1881, the Staten Island Museum is the borough’s oldest cultural institution, featuring interdisciplinary exhibitions and educational programs in art, natural science, and history.
Planning your visit
The Staten Island Museum is the borough's oldest cultural institution, founded in 1881 by a natural history society, and it remains unusual in combining art, natural science and local history in one institution — a nineteenth-century model that most museums abandoned.
Its cicada collection is among the largest in the world, which sounds eccentric until periodical cicada emergences make national news every seventeen years.
The natural science holdings cover the borough's geology and ecology, the history collections its development from farmland and oyster beds to a suburban borough, and the art collections include work by Staten Island artists.
Snug Harbor, the museum's main site, is a former sailors' retirement home — a complex of Greek Revival buildings in landscaped grounds that is itself a National Historic Landmark.
The Staten Island Ferry is free and gives the best view of the Statue of Liberty available without paying.
Allow ninety minutes. Current availability is shown below.
Before you book
Where is Staten Island Museum?
Staten Island Museum is in Staten Island, United States. The map on this page marks its exact location.
How long should I allow for Staten Island Museum?
Allow ninety minutes. That is the time the collection itself takes at an unhurried pace, before any queue.
Do I need to book Staten Island Museum in advance?
Tickets can be bought on the door at quiet times, but booking ahead fixes the date and avoids the queue at busy ones. Live availability is shown on this page.