Ohio River Museum

The first accomplishment of the S&D was the establishment of a river museum for the preservation and the exhibition of artifacts, photographs, models, and books. The River Museum opened in 1941 within the Campus Martius Museum at Marietta, Ohio which is a part of the Ohio Historical Society.

In 1972 the Ohio Historical Society constructed a new Ohio River Museum complex consisting of three inter-connecting buildings on the banks of the Muskingum River at Marietta. New exhibits, original paintings steam calliope and whistles, and space for outdoors exhibits and artifacts now enhance the Sons & Daughters collection.

In 1955 one of the last surviving steam towboats, W. P. SNYDER JR., was added to the Ohio River Museum collection. This gift from the Crucible Steel Company of America to the Ohio Historical Society with the help of the Sons and Daughters of Pioneer Rivermen is moored on the Muskingum River adjacent to the museum.

The oldest existing Western Rivers steamboat pilothouse provides the crowning touch to the Ohio River Museum complex. The steamer Tell City's pilothouse was removed after the steamboat sank in 1917. In 1976, the joint efforts of the Sons and Daughters of Pioneer Rivermen, the Ohio Historical Society an the Huntington District U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, relocated the pilothouse to the Ohio River Museum. Monies from S&D's J. Mack Gamble Fund supported its restoration in 1977.

Ohio River Museum (OH Historical Society website)
Ohio River Museum (Campus Martius website)