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 Detroit River has been a hub of powerboat racing since 1916 when Detroit hosted its first Gold Cup.

Learn more about Detroit's 100+ year history of racing - from early powerboats to modern hydroplanes - in this exhibition, created by Wayne State University history graduate students Connor Chapman, Kit Hishmeh, Zahrah Koch, and Doris Lanzkron-Tamarazo. 

Detroit's modern urban farms provide fresh produce to schools, restaurants, and stores. In 2023, the city even created the Department of Urban Agriculture, bolstering Detroit's thriving food network. However, Detroiters have a long history of growing their own food.

This exhibition, created by Wayne State University history graduate students Ryan Baker, Nalissa Dace, Amanda Miller, and Rebecca Phoenix, shows how in feast or famine, Detroit’s urban farmers have managed to get out there and grow.  

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. 

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.

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.