PEM

Peabody Essex Museum used to be the East India Marina Society founded in 1799. As the story goes it was started by Captains in Salem bringing back cargo from all over the world. The cargo and shipping captains tried to one up each other by bringing back the most exotic items that they could find. The Museums still contains some of the original displays and the original items brought back by Salem Captains.
PEM is the oldest continuously operating museum in the United States.