Water

Independence Seaport Museum Winner for its Delaware River Exhibit

The Independence Seaport Museum captures the Philadelphia region’s maritime heritage with family-oriented interactive exhibitions, ship models, artifacts and art. Visitors to the museum can watch a wooden boat being built, climb aboard Admiral Dewey’s 1892 cruiser Olympia, tour the World War II-era submarine Becuna and visit the museum’s nautical gift shop.

The Independence Seaport Museum received a Special Achievement award in Interactivity from the American Alliance of Museums earlier this month. The ‘River Alive!’, Delaware river-focused exhibit, was one of seven winners in the 32nd Annual Excellence in Exhibition Competition.

Truly commended for its interactivity, the wall has over 15 different stations, including a “Water Cycle Puzzle” and “Plankton Bloom Table”. Guests get a comprehensive experience that reveals all the factors influencing the river and how it is very much so ‘alive’. The wall also has 5 different input stations which allows visitors to virtually ‘clean up’ the river and learn about all of the services the watershed provides for them overall.

Photo by J.Fusco

“We built River Alive! with the idea of bringing our museum into the 21st century in terms of content and presentation,” said President & CEO John Brady of Independence Seaport Museum according to a press release.

The exhibit helps the communities that are connected to the Delaware River Watershed engage with it on a deeper level and aims to expand their understanding of their relationship to it, combining exploration and play. Guests also have the option to take what they’ve learned onto the water with eco tours and kayaking.

Completed in November 2018, ‘River Alive’! is one of the museum’s permanent displays. The main attraction of the exhibit is a 32-foot ‘Continuum Wall’, which helps visitors to understand how the Delaware river effects their lives. Funding from the William Penn Foundation helped to make ‘River Alive!’ possible.

Although the museum is currently closed due to COVID-19 guidelines some exhibits can viewed online free.

Featured Photo by M. Fischetti

Jada Ackley

Jada is a West Philadelphia native passionate about environmental justice and community sovereignty. Through her work, she highlights how built and natural environments shape our quality of life and draws attention to the broader systems that influence them.