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About Us

The Great Lakes Museum is fortunate to be located on a national historic site that forms a considerable part of the Museum's narrative. It means that the Museum is able to at once share the story of the maritime heritage of Kingston and the Great Lakes, all the while connecting visitors to a physical piece of that history. Established in 1975 by a group of local divers who sought to protect the artifacts of the shipwrecks they explored, the Museum occupied the Kingston Dry Dock property (formerly the location of the Kingston Shipyards Co.) from 1975 to 2016. In 2023, the Great Lakes Museum acquired the S.S. Keewatin, an Edwardian-era passenger steamship built in 1907 that sailed until 1965. The ship opened to the public in May 2024 for seasonal guided tours. The Great Lakes Museum's mission is to inspire an enduring connection to the maritime heritage of Kingston and the Great Lakes.