San Francisco Maritime Museum

Located in San Francisco, Maritime Museum is a ship-shaped building. The museum displays include panels, videos, oral history recreations, models and interactive exhibits. Its balcony features The Mermaid, which is a one-man sailboat and statue by San Francisco sculptor, Beniamino Bufano. Maritime Museum s second floor displays photomurals, including early San Francisco waterfront, lithographic stone, scrimshaw and whaling guns. It also features the Sparks, Waves and Wizards: Communications at Sea exhibition, which tracks the colorful history of maritime communication from hand-held semaphore to orbiting satellite. The museum maintains a steamship room that displays the technological evolution of wind-to-steam power. In addition, it employs guides and sign language interpreters, as well as provides parking space. Maritime Museum is operated by the U.S. Department of the Interior.