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The Mariners' Museum was founded in 1930 by Archer Milton Huntington, son of railroad magnate Collis P. Huntington, and his wife, Anna Hyatt Huntington. Huntington's goal was to create a place that was "devoted to the culture of the sea and its tributaries, its conquest by man, and its influence on civilization". To create the museum, Huntington and his wife acquired 800 acre of land that would come to hold 90000 sqft of exhibition galleries, a research library and archive, a 167 acre lake, a shoreline trail with fourteen bridges, and about 32,000 maritime artifacts from around the globe. After the land acquisition took place, the first two years were devoted to creating and improving a natural park and constructing a dam to create Lake Maury, named after the nineteenth-century Virginia oceanographer, Commodore Matthew Fontaine Maury The museum never had an official or formal opening but, on October 29, 1933, guests who were enjoying the park were admitted to see the exhibitions.

=Park and trail= The Mariners' Museum park contains 550 acres of wooded land, a 5-mile trail and the 167-acre Lake Maury. The creation of the park began even before that of the museum building, but it wasn't until 1991 that the 5.1 mile Noland Trail was installed, courtesy of Lloyd U. Noland, Jr. and the Noland Foundation. The trail was designed by the architect Carlton Abbot to allow visitors to enjoy the scenery of the lake while also attempting to slow erosion. Visitors to the trail will also be able to enjoy the fourteen bridges over the lake, the Lion's Bridge and the large Conquering the Wild statue sculpted by Anna Hyatt Huntington.

=Collection=

The Mariners' Museum holds a world class collection of approximately 32,000 objects of international maritime importance.