The National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium is a museum located in

Dubuque Dubuque (, ) is the county seat of Dubuque County, Iowa, United States, located along the Mississippi River. At the time of the 2020 census, the population of Dubuque was 59,667. The city lies at the junction of Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin, a r ...

, Iowa, USA. The museum is a property of the Dubuque County Historical Society, which also operates the Mathias Ham Historic Site. The museum has two buildings on its riverfront campus: the Mississippi River Center and the National River Center. The museum originally opened as the Fred W. Woodward Riverboat Museum on July 18, 1982 before being expanded and re-organized into its current form. The museum is an affiliate of the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

, and is accredited by the

American Alliance of Museums American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

(AAM) and the

Association of Zoos and Aquariums The Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), originally the American Association of Zoological Parks and Aquariums, is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in 1924 and dedicated to the advancement of zoos and public aquariums in ...

(AZA).

The National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium Campus

The National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium is home to museum exhibits on the culture and history of America's rivers. The campus also includes over a dozen

aquariums An aquarium (plural: ''aquariums'' or ''aquaria'') is a vivarium of any size having at least one transparent side in which aquatic plants or animals are kept and displayed. Fishkeepers use aquaria to keep fish, invertebrates, amphibians, a ...

featuring

wildlife Wildlife refers to domestication, undomesticated animal species (biology), species, but has come to include all organisms that grow or live wilderness, wild in an area without being species, introduced by humans. Wildlife was also synonymous ...

representative of that found in the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...

and the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an oceanic basin, ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of ...

and other river systems and

deltas A river delta is a landform shaped like a triangle, created by deposition of sediment that is carried by a river and enters slower-moving or stagnant water. This occurs where a river enters an ocean, sea, estuary, lake, reservoir, or (more rarel ...

, including giant

catfish Catfish (or catfishes; order Siluriformes or Nematognathi) are a diverse group of ray-finned fish. Named for their prominent barbels, which resemble a cat's whiskers, catfish range in size and behavior from the three largest species alive, ...

sturgeon Sturgeon is the common name for the 27 species of fish belonging to the family Acipenseridae. The earliest sturgeon fossils date to the Late Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretace ...

, ducks, frogs, turtles, rays, octopus, river otters, and more. There are also outdoor exhibits, featuring river otters, a marsh, and large artifacts, such as boats, a

blacksmith A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from #Other metals, other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such ...

shop, a stream, and raptor aviaries including

bald eagle The bald eagle (''Haliaeetus leucocephalus'') is a bird of prey found in North America. A sea eagle, it has two known subspecies and forms a species pair with the white-tailed eagle (''Haliaeetus albicilla''), which occupies the same niche as ...

Permanent exhibits

William Woodward Mississippi River Center * Mississippi River Discovery Center * Carver Wet Lab * Historic Train Depot * Fred W. Woodward Riverboat Museum * Steamboat ''William M. Black'', a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

* The Pfohl Boatyard * Woodward Wetland Diamond Jo National River Center * RiverWays *Craver Stingray Touch Tank * Rivers to the Sea * RiverWorks * National Rivers Hall of Fame * Mississippi River Plaza * River's Edge Cafe * 3D/4D Large-format Digital Theater

National Rivers Hall of Fame

The National Rivers Hall of Fame focuses on the lives of people who made their living on and around the rivers in the United States. The Hall of Fame was created in 1985 and over 100 experts on American rivers, including conservationists, writers and historians, voted for the first inductees. John P. Bickle was one of the driving forces behind the creation of the Hall of Fame which started fund-raising in 1979. The Hall of Fame building has a 62-seat theater.

Inductees

* 1986:

Samuel Clemens Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has pr ...

, James Eads, Henry Shreve,

Louis Joliet Louis Jolliet (September 21, 1645after May 1700) was a French-Canadian explorer known for his discoveries in North America. In 1673, Jolliet and Jacques Marquette, a Jesuit Catholic priest and missionary, were the first non-Natives to explore and ...

and

Jacques Marquette Jacques Marquette S.J. (June 1, 1637 – May 18, 1675), sometimes known as Père Marquette or James Marquette, was a French Jesuit missionary who founded Michigan's first European settlement, Sault Sainte Marie, and later founded Saint Igna ...

. * 1987: John Fitch,

Robert Fulton Robert Fulton (November 14, 1765 – February 24, 1815) was an American engineer and inventor who is widely credited with developing the world's first commercially successful steamboat, the (also known as ''Clermont''). In 1807, that steamboat ...

Merriwether Lewis Meriwether Lewis (August 18, 1774 – October 11, 1809) was an American explorer, soldier, politician, and public administrator, best known for his role as the leader of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, also known as the Corps of Discovery, with ...

William Clark William Clark (August 1, 1770 – September 1, 1838) was an American explorer, soldier, Indian agent, and territorial governor. A native of Virginia, he grew up in pre-statehood Kentucky before later settling in what became the state of Misso ...

, Nicholas Roosevelt and an honorary award to Ralph Clark. * 1988:

De Witt Clinton DeWitt Clinton (March 2, 1769February 11, 1828) was an American politician and naturalist. He served as a United States senator, as the mayor of New York City, and as the seventh governor of New York. In this last capacity, he was largely resp ...

, Mary B. Greene, Zadok Cramer and

George Caleb Bingham George Caleb Bingham (March 20, 1811 – July 7, 1879) was an American artist, soldier and politician known in his lifetime as "the Missouri Artist". Initially a Whig Party (United States), Whig, he was elected as a delegate to the Missouri legisl ...

. * 1989: James Howard, Rene Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, John W. Cannon, and Diamond Jo Reynolds. * 1990:

John James Audubon John James Audubon (born Jean-Jacques Rabin; April 26, 1785 – January 27, 1851) was an American self-trained artist, naturalist, and ornithologist. His combined interests in art and ornithology turned into a plan to make a complete pictoria ...

, Stephen Collins Foster, Sacajawea, and Thomas P. Leathers. * 1991: James Rees, J.P. Doremus, Constance Lindsay Skinner, and Isaiah Sellers. * 1992: William Hopkins, Richard Bissell,

Henry Rowe Schoolcraft Henry Rowe Schoolcraft (March 28, 1793 – December 10, 1864) was an American geographer, geologist, and ethnologist, noted for his early studies of Native American cultures, as well as for his 1832 expedition to the source of the Mississippi R ...

, and

Black Hawk Black Hawk and Blackhawk may refer to: Animals * Black Hawk (horse), a Morgan horse that lived from 1833 to 1856 * Common black hawk, ''Buteogallus anthracinus'' * Cuban black hawk, ''Buteogallus gundlachii'' * Great black hawk, ''Buteogallus ur ...

. * 1993: Frederick Way, Jr.,

John Wesley Powell John Wesley Powell (March 24, 1834 – September 23, 1902) was an American geologist, U.S. Army soldier, explorer of the American West, professor at Illinois Wesleyan University, and director of major scientific and cultural institutions. He ...

, and Daniel Smith Harris. * 1994:

John A. Roebling John Augustus Roebling (born Johann August Röbling; June 12, 1806 – July 22, 1869) was a German-born American civil engineer. He designed and built wire rope suspension bridges, in particular the Brooklyn Bridge, which has been designated as ...

Washington Roebling Washington Augustus Roebling (May 26, 1837 – July 21, 1926) was an American civil engineer who supervised the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, designed by his father John A. Roebling. He served in the Union Army during the American Civ ...

, and

James Rumsey James Rumsey (1743 – December 21, 1792) was an American mechanical engineer chiefly known for exhibiting a boat propelled by machinery in 1787 on the Potomac River at Shepherdstown in present-day West Virginia before a crowd of local notables ...

. * 1995: Mary Miller. * 1996:

Stephen H. Long Stephen Harriman Long (December 30, 1784 – September 4, 1864) was an American army civil engineer, explorer, and inventor. As an inventor, he is noted for his developments in the design of steam locomotives. He was also one of the most pro ...

, and

Betty Blake Betty Blake (September 20, 1931 – April 13, 1982) was an American historic preservationist and promoter. She was best known for preserving historic riverboats in Cincinnati. Her biggest preservation project was helping to save the ''Delta Queen' ...

. * 1997: E.W. Gould, and

Grant Marsh Grant Prince Marsh (May 11, 1834 – January 1916) was a riverboat pilot and captain who was noted for his many piloting exploits on the upper Missouri River and the Yellowstone River in Montana from 1862 until 1882. He started to work as a cabi ...

. * 1998: King Fisher, Henry Bosse, and Alexander Mackenzie. * 1999:

Karl Bodmer Johann Carl Bodmer (11 February 1809 – 30 October 1893) was a Swiss-French printmaker, etcher, lithographer, zinc engraver, draughtsman, painter, illustrator and hunter. Known as Karl Bodmer in literature and paintings, as a Swiss and French c ...

, and

Louis Armstrong Louis Daniel Armstrong (August 4, 1901 – July 6, 1971), nicknamed "Satchmo", "Satch", and "Pops", was an American trumpeter and vocalist. He was among the most influential figures in jazz. His career spanned five decades and several era ...

. * 2000: William Peter Sprague, and

Charles Ellet, Jr Charles Ellet Jr. (1 January 1810 – 21 June 1862) was an American civil engineer from Pennsylvania who designed and constructed major canals, suspension bridges and railroads. He built the Wheeling Suspension Bridge, the longest suspension b ...

. * 2001: Ben Lucien Burman,

George Catlin George Catlin (July 26, 1796 – December 23, 1872) was an American adventurer, lawyer, painter, author, and traveler, who specialized in portraits of Native Americans in the United States, Native Americans in the Old West. Traveling to the We ...

, and

Callie Leach French Callie M. Leach French ("Aunt Callie" 1861–1935) was an American steamboat captain and pilot. For much of her career as a captain, she worked with her husband, towing showboats along the Ohio, Monogahela and Mississippi Rivers. She played the ca ...

. * 2002:

Fate Marable Fate Marable (December 2, 1890 – January 16, 1947) was an American jazz pianist and bandleader. Early life Marable was born in Paducah, Kentucky to James and Elizabeth Lillian (Wharton) Marable, a piano teacher. Fate had five siblings, includin ...

, and

Joseph LaBarge Joseph Marie LaBarge (October 1, 1815 – April 3, 1899) was an American steamboat captain, most notably of the steamboats ''Yellowstone'', and ''Emilie'', that saw service on the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, bringing fur traders, miners ...

. * 2003:

Zebulon Pike Zebulon Montgomery Pike (January 5, 1779 – April 27, 1813) was an American brigadier general and explorer for whom Pikes Peak in Colorado was named. As a U.S. Army officer he led two expeditions under authority of President Thomas Jefferson th ...

, and Ernest E. Wagner. * 2004:

Jim Bridger James Felix "Jim" Bridger (March 17, 1804 – July 17, 1881) was an American mountain man, trapper, Army scout, and wilderness guide who explored and trapped in the Western United States in the first half of the 19th century. He was known as Old ...

, Orrin Ingram and the Ingram Family, * 2005: Philip Suiter, and Louis C. Hunter. * 2006: William Peteresen, and the ''

Showboat A showboat, or show boat, was a floating theater that traveled along the waterways of the United States, especially along the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, to bring culture and entertainment to the inhabitants of river frontiers. Showboats were a ...

'' Team. * 2007: Charles Ward, and

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...

. * 2008: James Burns, Rene August Chouteau and

Pierre Chouteau Chouteau was the name of a highly successful, ethnically French fur-trading family based in Saint Louis, Missouri, which they helped found. Their ancestors Chouteau and Laclède initially settled in New Orleans. They then moved-up the Mississipp ...

. * 2009: Blanche Douglass Leathers, and David Thompson. * 2010: George Byron Merrick, and

Mike Fink Mike Fink (also spelled Miche Phinck)O'Neil, Paul. ''The Old West: The Rivermen''. Time-Life Books, New York. 1975 p. 71 (c. 1770/1780 – c. 1823), called "king of the keelboaters", was a semi-legendary brawler and river boatman who exempli ...

. * 2011: William E. Merrill, and

Rachel Carson Rachel Louise Carson (May 27, 1907 – April 14, 1964) was an American marine biologist, writer, and conservationist whose influential book ''Silent Spring'' (1962) and other writings are credited with advancing the global environmental m ...

. * 2012: C.C. Webber, and William S. Hays. * 2013: Jay Norwood "Ding" Darling, and

Jedediah Strong Smith Jedediah Strong Smith (January 6, 1799 – May 27, 1831) was an American clerk, transcontinental pioneer, frontiersman, hunter, trapper, author, cartographer, mountain man and explorer of the Rocky Mountains, the Western United States, and ...

. * 2014: Andrew Atkinson Humphreys, and

Seth Eastman Seth Eastman (January 24, 1808– August 31, 1875) was an artist and West Point graduate who served in the US Army, first as a mapmaker and illustrator. He had two tours at Fort Snelling, Minnesota Territory; during the second, extended tour he ...

. * 2015:

Ulysses S. Grant Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant ; April 27, 1822July 23, 1885) was an American military officer and politician who served as the 18th president of the United States from 1869 to 1877. As Commanding General, he led the Union Ar ...

, and

Samuel de Champlain Samuel de Champlain (; Fichier OrigineFor a detailed analysis of his baptismal record, see RitchThe baptism act does not contain information about the age of Samuel, neither his birth date nor his place of birth. – 25 December 1635) was a Fre ...

. * 2016:

John Muir John Muir ( ; April 21, 1838December 24, 1914), also known as "John of the Mountains" and "Father of the National Parks", was an influential Scottish-American naturalist, author, environmental philosopher, botanist, zoologist, glaciologist, a ...

, and Jane Muckle Robinson. * 2017:

Aldo Leopold Aldo Leopold (January 11, 1887 – April 21, 1948) was an American writer, philosopher, naturalist, scientist, ecologist, forester, conservationist, and environmentalist. He was a professor at the University of Wisconsin and is best known for his ...

, and

Minnie Mossman Hill Minnie Mae Mossman Hill (July 20, 1863 - January 9, 1946) was an American steamboat captain. Hill was the first woman to hold a captain's license on the Columbia River. She commanded her own vessels and traded along the river during her career. B ...

. * 2018: Stephen Beck Hanks, and

Rosalie Edge Rosalie Barrow Edge (November 3, 1877 – November 30, 1962) was an American environmentalist and suffragist. In 1929, she established the Emergency Conservation Committee to expose the conservation establishment's ineffectiveness and advocate ...

Notes

External links

*
Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium
Documentary produced by

Iowa Public Television Iowa PBS, formerly Iowa Public Television (IPTV), is a network of Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) member stations in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is owned by the Iowa Public Broadcasting Board, an agency of the state education department which h ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium Aquaria in Iowa Buildings and structures in Dubuque, Iowa Economy of Dubuque, Iowa Maritime museums in Iowa Zoos in Iowa Museums in Dubuque, Iowa Smithsonian Institution affiliates

The National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium Campus

Permanent exhibits

National Rivers Hall of Fame

Inductees

See also

Notes

External links