Current Exhibitions

The J.W. Westcott Company has been an active and beloved presence on the Detroit River for over 150 years. Casually referred to as the “mail boat,” the Westcott is the U.S.A.’s only floating zip code – 48222. Westcott staff deliver mail, packages, crew members, and even pizza to the vessels that journey across the Great Lakes during shipping season from April to December, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Still a family company today, the Westcott has evolved with the times. In this new exhibition, learn how Captain John Ward Westcott started his business in 1874 as a marine reporter, documenting river traffic and delivering company communications to ships via rowboat.

The Gothic Room in the Polk Family Hall is the first exhibit you enter when coming into the Dossin Great Lakes Museum.  Stepping through its doors is like stepping back in time inside the reconstructed gentleman’s lounge of the City of Detroit III, with a window on the right side of the gallery set up as if you’re looking out at the Detroit shore line in the early 1900s.

The S.S. William Clay Ford, a Great Lakes freighter, was scrapped in 1987 and its pilot house was brought to the Dossin Great Lakes Museum. 

Detroit’s growth and development into one of the nation’s leading metropolitan regions is undeniably linked to the river that shares its name. The Dossin Great Lakes Museum’s core exhibition Built by the River highways that Detroiters have long used the river and lakes around us to build our industries, engage our neighbors, and pursue our recreational passions. 

The Detroit Historical Society is home to one of the largest collections of Great Lakes ship models in the country. Most of the more than 150 models are five or six decades old, while at least one dates to 1854. The ship models represent over 300 years of North American fresh water maritime history. In many cases, the models themselves are historic; in other cases they represent significant examples of technological advances that powered social and economic aspects of the region’s history.

Explore a collection of maritime artifacts on the shores of Belle Isle, including the bow anchor of the legendary Edmund Fitzgerald, naval cannons from the Battle of Lake Erie in the War of 1812, a nautical flag pole and an anchor from the USS Yantic.

Watch the river from our new observation telescope and relax on the landscaped river walk.

Miss Pepsi, the fastest hydroplane in the Detroit River in its time, was perhaps the most famous symbol of a family that made their livelihood distributing nationally famous soft drinks to Detroiters and residents of the region. The company was Dossin’s Food Products.

As the Dossin Great Lakes Museum enters its seventh decade as Detroit’s maritime heritage center, it continues to expand accessibility to visitors from around the world.