Mel Fisher Maritime Heritage Museum - Key West, FL
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N 24° 33.491 W 081° 48.386
17R E 418332 N 2716266
Mel Fisher Maritime Heritage Museum is a maritime museum located at 200 Greene Street in Key West, Florida. One of the largest treasure finds in history happened in Key west and is on display at the museum, including gold, silver, and emeralds.
Waymark Code: WM12NH5
Location: Florida, United States
Date Posted: 06/22/2020
Views: 4
The Mel Fisher Maritime Museum contains an extensive collection of artifacts from 17th century shipwrecks, such as the Santa Margarita, the Henrietta Marie and Nuestra Señora de Atocha.
World famous treasure maritime salvor Mel Fisher uncovered the 1622 wreck of the Spanish galleon Atocha in 1985, after an exhausting search which took over 18 years and cost him the life of his son, a professional diver.
Also included at the museum are the shipwrecks and artifacts of the Santa Clara, a Conquistador-era galleon (1564 and the Guerrero & Nimble. A rotating gallery exists on the second floor of the museum and is currently displaying an exhibit or artifacts belonging to Cuban Rafters, Balseros, who arrive to Key West in hand-crafted vessels. Terrestrial archaeological cites include The African Cemetery of Key West, located on Higg's Beach.
The museum is named for founder Mel Fisher and was created as a non-profit charity organization, thus Fisher's fortune was not financially linked to the museum. It is a museum, a lab, and a nationally recognized research facility.
Within the museum is a fully operating Conservation and Archaeology lab, where guests are allowed admittance during a daily private Lab Tour and are able to touch the artifacts while learning about the various stages of artifact conservation. Some artifacts, depending on type and density, can take anywhere from weeks to years for full conservation before they are placed on display in the museum.
As of December, 2015 the upstairs exhibits, in addition to the slave ship Henrietta Marie, included displays about a group of freed slaves in Key West in 1860, the preservation of items recovered underwater, and Caribbean piracy.
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