South Street Seaport Museum

Museum/ Attraction: South Street Seaport Museum
Website: http://www.southstreetseaportmuseum.org/ (no online store site)
Atmosphere: Small selection of themed items near ticket counter
Drool-worth items: Thomas Paul octopus engraving on a large cotton shawl ($65)
Typical logo items: A t-shirt
Haul: nothing

Comments:
I have never been inside the South Street Seaport Museum, but since it is an open-air site mixed with conventional retail and dinning, I have passed through it on numerous occasions. Recently, while passing by, I was lured to step foot in the little storefront where you also buy tickets for the enclosed exhibits and the ships docked around the site. What caught my eye were two large gauzy nautical-themed shawls in the window. What’s this? Tell me more!

The store it’s self is small, with items, as you would expect, aimed at the nautical nature of the site. It has the overall feel of a ticket booth staging area but, having said that, had a nice little range of products: something for everyone within in a very browse-worthy 15 minutes or less. Well represented were an assortment of books about ships, early NYC history (including of the Seaport) and a small selection of NYC-themed items. Plenty of kid-centric items, including crafts and age-appropriate books. I was pleased to see it was blessedly free of pirate fare (at least that I noticed since I just took a quick spin around the store). Going the pirate route would have seemed a no-brainer to the buyer but also would have shown a certain amount of laziness. History is fascinating and there are far better ways to try and lure kids (I hope!) into learning about history without glossing over murder, theft, and, yes, pillaging.

I was also impressed that they had a nice (if small) collection of decor items such as modern plate settings with bright sea creatures and some very-on trend nautical items such as rope bracelets and enamel bracelets with semi fore and sailing motifs. In summary, with what little they were working with, I felt the store buyer did a great job of hitting all the right marks.

All and all, I didn’t personally pick-up anything (though I suspect that octopus shawl will haunt me in my dreams if I don’t get it- I found it online too along with many of the other wonderful décor items by Thomas Paul) I do see myself being more inclined to pop in every now and again to see what’s new. I personally suggest adding more fashion items, like bags made out of repurposed sail cloth and more jewelry like anchor necklaces and charms.

PS- Nearby is a permanent Body Worlds exhibit . I have previously been to one of the much larger traveling exhibits and can say A) well worth it and B) gift shop heaven! Review of this exhibits gift shop will be forthcoming.