GPS City GuideKey WestMel Fisher Maritime Heritage Museum

Stop 7 of 26 · Key West audio walking tour

Mel Fisher Maritime Heritage Museum

Key West · 1564 · Conquistador-era galleon wreckage

What you'll hear here: about a minute of narration about Mel Fisher Maritime Heritage Museum, and how it fits Key West, written to be listened to on the spot rather than read at home.

At 200 Greene Street, the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum waits for you in Key West. Inside this museum are extensive collections salvaged from 17th-century shipwrecks — the Henrietta Marie, Nuestra Señora de Atocha and Santa Margarita — and from other famous wrecks: The Santa Clara, a Conquistador-era galleon (1564), The Guerrero and Nimble. The place is simultaneously a museum, a lab, and a nationally recognized research facility, named for founder Mel Fisher and created as a 501(c)3 non-profit charity, so Fisher's fortune is not financially linked to the museum.

On the second floor a rotating gallery is currently displaying an exhibit of artifacts belonging to Cuban Rafters, or Balseros, who arrive in hand-crafted vessels to Key West. Terrestrial archaeology is represented here too: the museum includes material connected to The African Cemetery of Key West, located on Higgs Beach. A fully operating Conservation and Archaeology lab sits within these walls; guests may join a daily private Lab Tour, touch certain artifacts, and learn about the stages of artifact conservation.

Picture the second-floor gallery above, and Greene Street stretching out beyond the museum.

Where it is

Coordinates
24.558, -81.8065
Area
Key West
Era
1564 · Conquistador-era galleon wreckage
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Three stops free. No account needed. The audio plays itself as you walk.