The Whaling Museum & Education Center, formerly known as The Whaling Museum, is a maritime museum located in Cold Spring Harbor, New York dedicated to the local history, the maritime heritage of Long Island and its impact of the whaling industry. The Museum about 20,000 visitors annually and is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums. The Whaling Museum Society was founded in 1936, with the Museum itself opening in 1942. Its current exhibit space is 2,500 square feet and includes an educational workshop. The museum holds about 6,000 documents and artifacts from Cold Spring Harbor and other Long Island whaling towns. Its collection includes a 19th-century whaleboat with original gear and a large collection of scrimshaw. Additional displays include whaling implements, ship’s gear, navigational aids, ship models and maritime art. The library and archival collection contains 2,800 primary and secondary volumes and manuscript material from the Cold Spring whaling fleet, ship’s logs, journals and business correspondence of the Cold Spring Whaling Company, family documents dealing with maritime commerce on Long Island, records of the Long Island coastwise trade under sail and records from the Cold Spring Harbor Customs House (1798 until 1908). The museum hosts educational events and exhibitions year-round, including films, lectures, performances, and special events, connecting the subject of whaling to other subjects in art, science, and culture. Museum collection The majority of the Museum's collections were donated over time, starting as a community repository from the Museum's founding in 1936. Totaling 6,000 pieces, most pieces speak to the 19th century whaling industry, specifically Long Island whaling, as well as the local history of Cold Spring Harbor and its growth as a maritime port. The collection includes: Scrimshaw: 500 scrimshaw items crafted by whalers at sea including decorative pieces on teeth and tusks. The collection excels in its variety of hundreds of utilitarian pieces such as sewing boxes, swifts, busks, fids, and jagging wheels. Whalecraft, ship gear, and navigational aids: 275 tools, including a 19th-century whaleboat from the Long Island whaleship Daisy (and the only fully equipped whaleboat with its original gear on display in New York State), with a collection of tools, trypot, figureheads, and navigational tools. Archives: containing 95% of the existing manuscript material from the Cold Spring Harbor whaling fleet (documenting 44 voyages of 9 ships from 1836 to 1862), including 15 ships logs, 12 journals, and business correspondence; 90% of the records from