Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Saturday May 20, 2006
SPECIAL INTEREST MUSEUMS AWAIT VISITORS TO LONG ISLAND, NY
Contact: Kristen Matejka
Director of Marketing andCommunications
LICVB&SC
631 951-3900 xt.317
A VARIETY OF SPECIAL INTEREST MUSEUMS AWAIT VISITORS TO LONG ISLAND, NY
HAUPPAUGE, NY –(May 20, 2006)- Visitors to Long Island, NY will be delighted at the incredible assortment of museums that reflect the colorful and diverse history of the region and reach out to visitors with fascinating special interest themes.
What’s your interest? Planes, trains, horse-drawn carriages, Native American history, boating or whaling? Come to Long Island for museums that will spark your imagination.
Following is just a sampling of some of the many special interest museums Long Island offers to visitors:
The world-class Cradle of Aviation museum in Garden City traces the history of flight, from its earliest days to man’s first attempts to reach the moon. Through a myriad of interactive, hands-on displays, as well as extensive collection of 70 legendary planes, including one that belonged to Charles Lindberg, the museum rivals the collection of the Smithsonian. Lindbergh took the first transatlantic flight from Long Island. Various outposts within the Cradle of Aviation museum feature WWII reels showing actual air footage, while a modern IMAX theater, the largest in New York State, brings visitors into the action through various changing feature films. The museum also features the prototype Lunar Excursion Module (LEM) engineers at Long Island’s Grumman Aerospace built for testing before the actual LEM was used in man’s first visit to the moon.
At the American Airpower Museum, within hangars built during World War II, is an impressive collection of operational warplanes from that era. Staffed with volunteers in authentic period flight gear, the museum also offers a 1940s style control tower and visitor access to a fleet of vintage automobiles and trucks.
The American Merchant Marine Museum serves as a repository for the USMMA's extensive and valuable collection of marine art, ship models and nautical artifacts. The Museum's mission is to educate and inform visitors about the American merchant marine in a learning center for the regiment and public at large, to promote public interest in and understanding of our nation's merchant marine and to collect, preserve and exhibit historic items that represent the nation's rich seafaring heritage. The Museum employs imaginative exhibitions and displays to illustrate what the American merchant marine is and who its leaders are.
Children will delight at a museum created just for them at the Children’s Museum in Garden City. How thrilled would your children be to learn of a museum created just for them? At the Long Island Children’s Museum, exhibits and amazing hands-on displays help children to learn…fun! Pop the boundary between play and experimentation in the Bubble Room; or visit Sandy Island to shape a sand dune with wind; venture through a two-story climbing structure; or experience the magic of making music, among many other adventures.
Ever been to a museum shaped like a Big Duck? Built in 1931 by Riverhead duck farmer Martin Maurer, as a store to sell his Peking Ducks to passing motorists, the Big Duck in Flanders is one of the most famous examples of roadside architecture. Now open to the public as a gift shop and East End tourist information center. Big Duck Quackoff and Holiday Lighting take place every year. Some admire its architecture, others revel in its history and few have said it's the silliest little building you will ever come across. But if you stand along Route 24 at the Flanders/Hampton Bays border and watch the cars go by, you can't help but notice how just everyone turns there head to glance at this unique Long Island landmark, and ends up smiling at the 30-foot-long by 20-foot-high BIG DUCK.
For another experience that will take you out of the ordinary, visit the Old Bethpage Village Restoration in Plainview. The Old Bethpage Village Restoration offers visitors the opportunity to see what life was like before there was electricity, cars and video games. Today, there are 51 historic buildings and seven reconstructions and the site encompasses 209 acres. The facility caters to children and adults in a fun and interactive way, with persons performing 19th century style tasks in full costume.
History also comes to life, but in a much more lavish and opulent light, at Long Island’s Gold Coast Mansions. Along Long Island’s north shore lies a place of uninhibited wealth and opulence immortalized in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s book, THE GREAT GATSBY. Many of the “Gold Coast” mansions that grace this scenic coastal area, so-called due to the huge concentration of fortunes here, are open for the public’s perusal and enjoyment. While in Sand’s Point, see the new animatronic exhibit “Dinosaurs” at Gould Hall.
The great history of American President Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt also comes to life at the site of what was called the “summer Whitehouse” at Sagamore Hill in Oyster Bay. This former home of President Roosevelt is open now as a museum. Nearby is the nature preserve established in his name and also the final resting spot of the late President at Youngs Cemetary.
Discover one of the largest collections of horse-drawn carriages at the Long Island Museum of History, Art and Carriages in historic Stony Brook. This nine acre park contains three museums featuring changing exhibitions in American Art, History and horse-drawn carriages. Enjoy lovely gardens and a fountain framed by historic blacksmith shop, schoolhouse, exhibits of 19th and 20th-century art, miniature rooms, antique decoys, museum shop.
The 28-acre Hallockville Museum dates back to 1765 and represents a North Fork farm of the 1880's and 90's featuring period furnishings, and also historic farm equipment. The home is on the National Register of Historic Places. An education center offers classes, exhibits. Periodic folk concerts, living history program, with a fall festival and tractor pull annually.
During the 19th century, Long Island was a center for whaling, a colorful piece of its past that is preserved at the Cold Spring Harbor Whaling Museum on Main Street in Cold Spring Harbor. Whaling & maritime history comes alive through exhibits, over 6,000 artifacts including a fully-equipped 19th century whale boat, and scrimshaw. The Museum also offers marine mammal conservation education, nautical workshops, concerts, and other special programs.
Also depicting Long Island’s whaling history is the Sag Harbor Whaling Museum. This Greek Revival period house museum features whaling artifacts, ship captain's portraits, nautical memorabilia and scrimshaw, as well as a painting that Herman Melville commented was one of the finest representations of the industry.
The Long Island Maritime Museum, occupying 14 waterfront acres on West Avenue in West Sayville, comprises five historic buildings. The complex offers changing boating and marine exhibits, as well as a local small craft collection and a 19th century oystering vessel. The Museum also hosts an annual Seafood Festival in August and a “Halloween Boat Burning” in October.
Garvies Point Museum & Preserve in Glen Cove features exhibits and programs on Native American Archeology. Visitors are also provided an overview of the geological development of the region including how the drifting and collisions of ancient continents created the rocks and land features we see today. The formation of Long Island’s topography by Ice Age (Pleistocene) glaciers is shown in models and dioramas. Geological specimens as well as numerous Native American artifacts are also displayed. The museum’s classical dioramas of local Native American scenes are a highlight. The preserve shoreline on the east shore of Hempstead Harbor is noted for the outcrops of Cretaceous clay that ooze from the base of the bluffs.
Long Island is also known for its lighthouses, several of which are open for the public to make their way to the top. With over 25 lighthouses built on Long Island since 1796, Long Island enjoys a deep connection to these historic structures. In fact, Suffolk County has more lighthouses than any other county in the United States, many of which are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Three lighthouses feature museums and permit a climb to the top of the tower: Montauk Lighthouse, Fire Island Lighthouse and Horton Point.
Long Island also features three railroad museums. The historic railroad collection in the Railroad Museum of Long Island in Riverhead includes steam engine #39, Diesel engine #1556, Porter engine #1 and 8 other vintage railroad cars. This is an indoor museum with miniature railroad. A sister location is at the Railroad Museum of Long Island in Greenport. The Wantagh Railroad Museum resides in three structures, the station, the Jamaica Railroad car and the original Wantagh Post office. The station was built in 1885 and originally stood on Railroad Avenue, east of Wantagh Avenue. In 1966 the Wantagh station was moved to its current location to save it from demolition.
The Long Island Convention & Visitors Bureau and Sports Commission (LICVB&SC) was established in 1979 as the official tourism promotion agency for the destination’s travel and tourism industry. Based on Long Island in Hauppauge, NY, the LICVB&SC contributes to the economic development and quality of life on Long Island by promoting the region as a world-class destination for tourism, meetings and conventions, trade shows, sporting events, and related activities. For more information about Long Island, please contact the Long Island Convention & Visitors Bureau and Sports Commission by calling 1-877-FUN-ON-LI or visit www.discoverlongisland.com.
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