The Working Waterfront Maritime Museum is a Maritime Museum located in Tacoma, Washington, USA. The museum sits on the Thea Foss Waterway. Along with the Discovery Wharf Children's Activity Area, the WWMM is a part of the Foss Waterway Seaport, a 501c3 non-profit organization founded in 1996. In conjunction with the Foss Waterway Development Agency, the Seaport seeks private and public funds to support its mission statement. The Working Waterfront Maritime Museum is dedicated to creating "a permanent education and activity venue on the Tacoma waterfront". [1]
The activities of the Working Waterfront Maritime Museum are governed by a mission statement which is as follows: "The mission of the Foss Waterway Seaport is to celebrate Tacoma's rich maritime heritage — past, present, and future." [1] From the foundation of the current city to the modern day, a large part of Tacoma's commerce has depended on maritime industry. The museum also includes education on marine biology, pre-contact maritime culture, and recreational boating. The museum's vision statement reads as follows:
The development partners of this project — the Foss Waterway Seaport and the Foss Waterway Development Authority — are dedicated to creating a venue that will continue to bring the downtown waterfront to life as a place for everyone. When fully completed, the Seaport will be the most comprehensive maritime heritage and education center on the US west coast and the only authentic facility in the Pacific Northwest to showcase the region's maritime history in a location where that history actually took place[.] [1]
The claim of authenticity is based on the history of the site (see below). This vision includes a broad visitor base, however the Maritime Museum features many exhibits and events geared towards children.
Like many non-profit museums, the WWMM is governed by a board of trustees. At the Working Waterfront Maritime Museum the regular board consists of 23 members, including a president, two vice-presidents and a treasurer. In addition, two members comprise the emeritus board. [1]
The museum has five full-time staff members: an executive director, administrative manager, marketing and program manager, visual art producer, and facilities manager. The WWMM also depends on a large group of volunteers. [1]
The Maritime Museum began in the 1990s as "Life on the Sound," a project which attempted to increase community space available to "celebrate the art, culture, crafts and skills of Puget Sound's maritime community." In 1996 this was incorporated as a 501(c)(3) organization, then called the Commencement Bay Maritime Association. When the project's concept expanded beyond the museum itself, in 2005, it was renamed the Foss Waterway Seaport. [1] The building is housed in the Puget Sound Freight Warehouse. [2] At the center of the Maritime Museum is the historic Balfour Dock building, which served as a cargo wharf for over seven decades, until its closure in the 1970s. [1] The museum has recently renovated this space to expand meeting space and exhibits.
The vision statement (see above) of the museum describes their audience as "everyone." Many of their programs and exhibits are intended for children, which in turn drives their audience towards families. Many reviews of the museum also mention children's experiences. [2] This is fairly common among many types of museums, however, and visitors will find adult-oriented content alongside that intended for children.
The Working Waterfront Maritime Museum has two primary exhibitions, "Back Yard to Big Time," and the "Balfour Dock Building." The museum also holds several exhibits of individual objects, including the James Robert Hanssen rowboat, Andrew Foss rowboats, Willits canoes, a model SS Tacoma, and a selection of early maritime photos. The museum houses ongoing boat restoration projects, which are on view. [1] [3] Tall ships also frequent the museum's dock on yearly festival rounds. [2] Ten upcoming exhibits have been proposed by the development teams, descriptions of which are available through their website: Early Waterfront Life, Connecting Waterfront Communities, The Lumber Capital of the World, The Foss Story, Tacoma Ships, Our World Waterfront Link, International Shipping and Trade, Labor and the Working Waterfront, The Waterfront and the Environment, Balancing the Uses, and The Recreational Boat Building Business. These exhibits are still in development and dates have not been provided for their openings. [1]
The Working Waterway Maritime Museum hosts one major public program designed to educate the public and foster community. During the summer, the museum hosts a weekly children's event called "Whoopee! It's Wednesday!" with weekly educational themes like individual histories or specific crafts related to local maritime industry. Admission is variable, based on the activities. [1]
The museum feature a number of historic boats (see Exhibits). Collections information is not available through the primary website. The absence of a full-time collections manager may indicate the museum does not hold a traditional collection of accessioned, permanent objects. This does not mean the Working Waterfront is not a museum, but it is closer to the ecomuseum tradition, instead of the classic cabinet of curiosities model.
Port Townsend is a city on the Quimper Peninsula in Jefferson County, Washington, United States. The population was 10,148 at the 2020 United States Census. It is the county seat and only incorporated city of Jefferson County. In addition to its natural scenery at the northeast tip of the Olympic Peninsula, the city is known for the many Victorian buildings remaining from its late 19th-century heyday, numerous annual cultural events, and as a maritime center for independent boatbuilders and related industries and crafts. The Port Townsend Historic District is a U.S. National Historic Landmark District. It is also significantly drier than the surrounding region due to being in the rainshadow of the Olympic Mountains, receiving only 19 inches or 480 millimeters of rain per year.
Tacoma is the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound, 32 miles (51 km) southwest of Seattle, 31 miles (50 km) northeast of the state capital, Olympia, and 58 miles (93 km) northwest of Mount Rainier National Park. The city's population was 219,346 at the time of the 2020 census. Tacoma is the second-largest city in the Puget Sound area and the third-largest in the state. Tacoma also serves as the center of business activity for the South Sound region, which has a population of about 1 million.
The Maritime Museum of the Atlantic is a maritime museum located in downtown Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
Northwest Seaport Maritime Heritage Center is a nonprofit organization in Seattle, Washington dedicated to the preservation and interpretation of Puget Sound and Northwest Coast maritime heritage, expressed through educational programs and experiences available to the public aboard its ships. The organization owns three large historic vessels docked at the Historic Ships' Wharf in Seattle's Lake Union Park; the tugboat Arthur Foss (1889), Lightship 83 Swiftsure (1904), and the halibut fishing schooner Tordenskjold (1911). These vessels are used as platforms for a variety of public programs, ranging from tours and festivals to restoration workshops and vocational training.
Thea Christiansen Foss was the founder of Foss Maritime, the largest tugboat company in the western United States. She was the real-life person on which the fictional character "Tugboat Annie" may have been very loosely based.
Fisherman's Wharf is a neighborhood and popular tourist attraction in San Francisco, California. It roughly encompasses the northern waterfront area of San Francisco from Ghirardelli Square or Van Ness Avenue east to Pier 35 or Kearny Street. The F Market streetcar runs through the area, the Powell-Hyde cable car line runs to Aquatic Park, at the edge of Fisherman's Wharf, and the Powell-Mason cable car line runs a few blocks away.
L.E."Ted" Geary was a naval architect who grew up in Seattle, Washington. He designed and raced numerous competitive sailing vessels, and also designed commuter yachts, fishing boats, tug boats, and wooden-hulled freighters.
Arthur Foss, built in 1889 as Wallowa at Portland, Oregon, is likely the oldest wooden tugboat afloat in the world. Its 79-year commercial service life began with towing sailing ships over the Columbia River bar, and ended with hauling bundled log rafts on the Strait of Juan de Fuca in 1968. Northwest Seaport now preserves the tug as a museum ship in Seattle, Washington.
The Thea Foss Waterway, formerly the City Waterway, is a north–south inlet of Commencement Bay separating downtown Tacoma, Washington, from the Port of Tacoma.
The Puget Sound mosquito fleet was a multitude of private transportation companies running smaller passenger and freight boats on Puget Sound and nearby waterways and rivers. This large group of steamers and sternwheelers plied the waters of Puget Sound, stopping at every waterfront dock. The historical period defining the beginning and end of the mosquito fleet is ambiguous, but the peak of activity occurred between the First and Second World Wars.
The Independence Seaport Museum was founded in 1961 and is located in the Penn's Landing complex along the Delaware River in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The collections at the Independence Seaport Museum document maritime history and culture along the Delaware River. At the museum are two National Historic Landmark ships and the J. Welles Henderson Archives and Library.
The Port of Tacoma is an independent seaport located in Tacoma, Washington. The port was created by a vote of Pierce County citizens on November 5, 1918. The Edmore was the first ship to call at the port in 1921. The port's marine cargo operations, among the largest in the United States, was merged with the Port of Seattle's in 2015 to form the Northwest Seaport Alliance.
The Halifax Waterfront Boardwalk is a public footpath located on the Halifax Harbour waterfront in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
Boston Harborwalk is a public walkway that follows the edge of piers, wharves, beaches, and shoreline around Boston Harbor. When fully completed it will extend a distance of 47 miles (76 km) from East Boston to the Neponset River.
The Central Waterfront of Seattle, Washington, United States, is the most urbanized portion of the Elliott Bay shore. It runs from the Pioneer Square shore roughly northwest past Downtown Seattle and Belltown, ending at the Broad Street site of the Olympic Sculpture Park.
Tacoma was a steamship that served from 1913 to 1938 on Puget Sound. Built of steel, Tacoma was known for being one of the fastest and best-designed vessels to operate on Puget Sound. Tacoma was particularly noted for high-speed service from 1913 to 1930 on the route between Tacoma and Seattle.
Foss Maritime, is an American tugging company. The company was founded in 1889 by Thea Foss (1857–1927) and her husband Andrew Foss. The company is now the largest tug and towing concern on the west coast of the United States.
The Northwest Seaport Alliance is a port authority based in the Puget Sound region of the United States, comprising the seaports of Seattle and Tacoma in Washington state. The combined port authority is the third largest cargo port in the United States and by container volume.
The Port of Everett is a public seaport authority located on Port Gardner Bay in Everett, Washington, United States. Founded in 1918, it operates a small cargo terminal, a public marina, waterfront real estate, and public recreational lands. The Port of Everett is the third-largest container port in the state of Washington, behind Tacoma and Seattle.
Coordinates: 47°15′28″N122°26′15″W / 47.257847°N 122.437366°W