Concerns grow over the future of PHMC’s stewardship of Niagara as they outsource her crew to a Canadian company.

The second installment of this trilogy dives deeper into the missteps and ongoing inefficiencies of the PHMCThe Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC) is the state agency that stewards the U.S. Brig Niagara and Erie Maritime Museum. The PHMC is responsible for the collect..., following their 2010 reprimand by the Auditor General. Spoiler alert: progress is hard to find.

In 2010, the Pennsylvania Auditor General expressed deep concerns over PHMC’s handling of artifacts. If PHMC is lax in their own professional sphere, why should we trust them in maritime affairs? With the operations and maintenance of the U.S. Brig Niagara? 

PHMC’s delays over Niagara’s care now have very real consequences as PHMC announces that Niagara will not attend Tall Ships Erie 2025.

PHMC says that we should trust them. Let’s take a look at PHMC’s broken promises to see if they can be trusted.

Former Niagara deckhand Hank describes how sailing on Niagara transformed his life and was a catalyst for a career change.

PHMC has yet to publicly post the position for Niagara’s Captain, but they claim the search is ongoing. How could this be and how open is it?

The blog post “Shipwrecked by Command! How PHMC Cast Away its Volunteers” includes several documents from our Right to Know RequestsA Right to Know (RTK) request is a request for information from a state or local government body in Pennsylvania. You are allowed to request any kind of information, and aside from.... We felt those documents deserved additional context, but including it in the piece focused on volunteers did not feel like the right...