A museum of the Smithsonian Institution, the National Museum of the American Indian George Gustav Heye Center in New York, New York, is the first in the nation designed to preserve, study, and exhibit all aspects of the lives, languages, literature, arts and history of Native Americans. Since 1989 the museum has displayed the collection put together by and large by George Gustav Heye which contains over 800,000 works representing more than 1,200 indigenous cultures from the United States, Canada, Central and South America and the Caribbean. These works and artifacts span a timeline of over 12,000 years beginning from Paleo-Indian all the way to contemporary. The museum houses not only object collections but a Photographic Archive, Media Archive and Paper Archive with records dating from the 1860s. Special events at the National Museum of the American Indian include films, musical and dance performances, special programs like honors, awards and celebrations, tours, talks, lectures, workshops, crafts, demonstrations, and more.
The collections of the National Museum of the American Indian are spread amongst three facilities, the National Museum of the American Indian on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., a research and collections facility in Suitland, Maryland, and the George Gustav Heye Center permanent museum in New York City. The New York location is within the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House at One Bowling Green in lower Manhattan. The museum is open from 10am-5pm daily, until 8pm on Thursdays, and is closed on Christmas. Admission is free to the general public, and it can easily be reached by public transport on the 1, 4, 5, R, W, M, J and Z trains; the M1, M6 and M15 buses and by vehicle although no parking is available at the facility.
Hotels located nearby include the Holiday Inn Manhattan- Downtown/Soho, the Gershwin Hotel, Comfort Inn Manhattan, the Regency Inn Suites NYC and the Millennium Hotel New York UN Plaza. Famous New York City attractions located nearby include the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island Immigration Museum, the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, the South Street Seaport and South Street Seaport Museum, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Fulton Fish Market, Battery Park, Trinity Church and the World Trade Center Site.
For more information about the National Museum of the American Indian George Gustav Heye Center visit the official website, at: www.nmai.si.edu.
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