• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to secondary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Privacy Policy
  • Advertise
  • Contact our Team
  • In the News
  • For NYC Residents
    • NYC Free Parking Calendar 2020
    • ID NYC Card for Free Museum Admission
    • Where to Donate Goods or Volunteer

NYC on the Cheap

Get More New York City for Less Money

  • Aways
    Free
    • Best FREE Things to Do in New York City
    • FREE Museum Admission by Borough
    • FREE Museum Admission by Day of Week
    • NYC Museums With No Admission Fee Ever
    • FREE Tickets to Late Night TV Shows
    • FREE Tickets to Daytime TV Shows
  • Entertainment
    & the Arts
    • Family Fun
    • NYC Discount Tickets
    • Philadelphia Ticket Deals
    • Movies
    • NYC Free: Museum Admission by Day of Week
    • NYC Theater
  • Food & Drink
    Deals
    • Where to Eat in Times Square
    • Best Jewish delis for overstuffed sandwiches
    • All-You-Can-Eat Sushi Deals
    • Best NYC Lobster Restaurants
    • Best Happy Hours
    • Birthday Freebies: Restaurants
    • Daily Deals
  • Shopping
    in NYC
    • Ten Things for $1 in NYC
    • Scam Alert
    • Discounts for Seniors
    • Birthday Freebies: Retail Stores
    • Best Resale Shops
    • Cheapest Gas
  • Things
    to Do
    • Seasonal Events
    • Free & Cheap Weekend Events
    • NYC Historic Homes now Museums
    • Where to See Hamilton in NYC
    • NYC Theater
    • Carousels in All 5 Boros
    • 9/11 Memorial & Museum
    • Events in NYC Parks
    • Get Free Tickets to Late Night TV Shows
    • NYC Festivals
    • Getting Around
  • Family
    Fun
    • Best Musems for Kids in Manhattan
    • Carousels in all 5 Boroughs
  • Crisis
    Resources
  • Scam
    Alert
  • Getaways
    & Travel Deals
  • Free & Cheap
    Events
  • Best FREE Things to Do in NYC
  • NYC Sightseeing and Tours Discounts
  • Ticket Deals
  • Cheapest Gas Prices
  • For NYC Residents
You are here: Home / NYC Museums / History of Brooklyn Waterfront Museum Exhibit
← NFL Experience Times Square Discount Tickets
Broadway Week 2-for-1 Tickets →

History of Brooklyn Waterfront Museum Exhibit

POSTED BY
Evelyn Kanter

history of broolyn waterfrontThe Brooklyn waterfront has changed a great deal over the years, exactly what this fascinating new exhibit at the Brooklyn Historical Society explores and explains. You’ll see sections honoring the women who worked of the waterfront, including at the Brooklyn Navy Yards, the effects of gentrification and climate change, and items invented and produced on the Brooklyn waterfront.

It took four years of research and development to bring to life the vibrant history of Brooklyn’s coastline through interwoven stories of workers, industries, activists, innovators, families, neighborhoods, and ecosystems.

Appropriately, the new Waterfront exhibit is housed in Brooklyn Historical Society DUMBO, the only history museum in the waterfront DUMBO neighborhood, instead of at the main BHS location in Brooklyn Heights.

Downton Abbey Exhibit NYC

 

SEE ALSO

Discount tickets for Downton Abbey Exhibit in Manhattan.

 

The Brooklyn Waterfront exhibit opens Saturday, Jan. 20.

Here’s what you’ll find when you visit, and we encourage you to visit:

Landfilling the Shore is a floor-to-ceiling sculptural installation of more than 80 archaeological artifacts and fragments excavated from the ground beneath Empire Stores in the 1970s, at the exhibit entrance.

At Water’s Edge: A seven-minute multimedia experience introduces visitors to the waterfront’s dynamic history through ten historical moments, leaving them exhilarated by their time travels.

History in Motion: This installation makes the visitor the star. Using Kinect technology, “History in Motion” drops visitors into ten historic paintings and photographs, records them interacting with historical figures and objects, and weaves their actions into a 60-second movie starring themselves that can be shared on social media.

Brooklyn Bivalves tells the unlikely story of oysters and sewage. The 600 pounds of oyster shells featured in this installation were donated by the Billion Oyster Project.

An Unfree Waterfront highlights the moving and untold stories of three enslaved Brooklynites and their struggle for freedom along the shoreline.

The Walled City: Centered on a large-scale 1879 image of Brooklyn’s coastline, this section immerses visitors in the sights, sounds, and smells of Brooklyn’s 19th-century warehousing district. Visitors explore hidden stories vital to understanding the culture and history of the Walled City – from Walt Whitman’s waterfront trysts to hidden graves near the present-day Brooklyn Navy Yard.

A Laboring Family: Visitors become historians themselves and hunt down details in documents and genealogical records to trace the story of one 19th-century Empire Stores dockworker, Michael Harkins, and his family.

Made in Brooklyn: This object display in the museum’s restrooms highlights some of the iconic products made along Brooklyn’s coastline, including Chiclets Gum, Domino Sugar, and Benjamin Moore Paint.

Factory Women honors centuries of women workers along the waterfront. Visitors explore artifacts and listen to oral histories of female Navy Yard workers during World War II; a dress-up experience lets kids don work clothing and try their hand at shipfitting.

After Industry: Visitors explore salvaged materials and graffiti from the once-abandoned Empire Stores building. Oral history and video installations tell of the waterfront’s mid-century economic decline and its 21st-century rebirth.

Waterfront Neighborhoods Magnet Wall: Using magnets of buildings, bridges, animals, landmarks, and more on a ten-foot illustrated landscape, kids and adults can create their own whimsical waterfront while learning about Brooklyn’s many coastal neighborhoods.

Rising Waters: A touchscreen video installation features historians, business owners, politicians, scientists, and activists who explore key questions about climate change and sea level rise.

BHS DUMBO is the historical society’s new second location; a 3,200SF satellite space inside Empire Stores, a renovated 19th-century warehouse in Brooklyn Bridge Park. The warehouse, constructed in the late 1860s, once housed coffee, sugar, animal hides, and other commodities when Brooklyn was one of the largest commercial waterfronts in the world. Empire Stores stood shuttered for decades and reopened in 2017 as a revitalized public space featuring restaurants, retail stores, and offices.

Information for visiting:

Waterfront at BHS DUMBO (55 Water Street, Brooklyn) is open Tuesday-Thursday from 11 am to 6 pm, Friday and Saturday from 11 am to 8 pm, and Sunday from 11 am to 6 pm.

Suggested admission will be $10 for adults, $6 for seniors and teachers, and free for members and students of all ages.

###

Brooklyn Historical Society was founded in 1863, and is a nationally recognized urban history center dedicated to preserving and encouraging the study of Brooklyn’s extraordinary 400-year history. The main site is in Brooklyn Heights, housed in a magnificent landmark building designed by George Post and opened in 1881.

Brooklyn Historical Society DUMBO, opened in 2017 in Brooklyn Bridge Park. Today’s BHS is a cultural hub for civic dialogue, thoughtful engagement, and community outreach

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)

Related

Posted by Evelyn Kanter on January 15, 2018 | Updated January 16, 2018 Filed Under: Best of NYC · Brooklyn · NYC Museums Tagged With: Brooklyn Bridge Park

Reader Interactions

What do you think about this? We welcome your comments. Cancel reply

Primary Sidebar

Get Free Email Updates

Be the first to know about NYC free and cheap events, discounts and deals by signing up for our FREE enewsletter.

Latest News Trending Now

  • Van Gogh Immersive 360-Degree Exhibit Experience Tickets Now on Sale
    Van Gogh Immersive 360-Degree Exhibit Experience Tickets Now on Sale
  • McDonald's Throwback Thursdays: 15-35 Cent Items
    McDonald's Throwback Thursdays: 15-35 Cent Items
  • Frick Madison Opens March 18; Tickets on Sale
    Frick Madison Opens March 18; Tickets on Sale
  • Frugal Over Fifty: Senior Deals & Discounts
    Frugal Over Fifty: Senior Deals & Discounts
  • 101 FREE & Cheap Things to Do This Week Feb. 22-28
    101 FREE & Cheap Things to Do This Week Feb. 22-28
  • NYC Restaurant Week to Go Extended to Feb. 28
    NYC Restaurant Week to Go Extended to Feb. 28
  • Boycotting Goya Products? Try These Authentic Alternatives
    Boycotting Goya Products? Try These Authentic Alternatives
  • Dolly Parton 75th Birthday Celebration is Online & FREE
    Dolly Parton 75th Birthday Celebration is Online & FREE
  • NYC Free: Document Shredding
    NYC Free: Document Shredding
  • Kusama Exhibit at NYBG Opening April 10
    Kusama Exhibit at NYBG Opening April 10

Search by Category

Footer

About NYC on the Cheap

NYC does not have to be expensive when you know where the deals and freebies are.

We’re here to help you save money on NYC restaurants, theater, museums, shopping, events and more, as we have been doing since 2010.

Get more NYC for less money with NYCOTC. That’s our motto and we’re sticking to it.

Contact us: info@nyconthecheap.com

Who We Are

Your chief guide is Evelyn Kanter, a lifelong New Yorker and award-winning professional journalist.

Evelyn Kanter is a former consumer reporter for WABC-TV Eyewitness News and WCBS Radio Newsradio 88, the author of several NYC travel guidebooks and mobile apps, and zillions of newspaper and magazine articles, including for the NY Times, NY Post, NY Daily News and New York Magazine. Nobody  can match those NYC credentials.

Disclosure

NYC on the Cheap has an affiliate relationship with several companies which offer discounts and deals on this site.  When you purchase from one of these advertiser links, we earn a small commission.

If you’d like to help keep NYCOTC in the business of helping you save money, this is a great way to do it. It’s a win-win because the direct links save you both time searching for great deals and money.

Best Seller: NYC Guidebook by Evelyn Kanter

100 Things to do in NYC Before You Die

© 2021 NYC on the Cheap. Living On The Cheap® and On the Cheap® are registered trademarks owned by Living On The Cheap Inc. Site design by Five J's Design.
All the stories on our site are protected by copyright and any unauthorized copying is strictly prohibited. Plus, it is just not nice.

Email subscription form header
Subscribe for free to NYC on the Cheap and never miss a free event or discount deal.
Our daily newsletter is the FREE. fast. and easy way to find out about New York City deals, discounts, free events, and more.
Please wait...
Please enter all required fields Click to hide
Correct invalid entries Click to hide
loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.