Red Star Line Museum

The Red Star Line Museum invites you on an eventful journey in the footsteps of the emigrants. Become acquainted with the passengers and accompany them on their trip from their native village to Antwerp. The ocean steamers of the Red Star Line are docked on the quay ready to depart for the New World. Exciting and personal stories accompany you across the ocean. On the other side of the ocean you say goodbye to your fellow passengers.

With their whole life packed in a few suitcases, millions of people sailed from Europe to America after 1800. The United States and Canada were the promised land for fortune seekers and everyone looking for a better life. For many people, the trip to the New World began in a warehouse in Antwerp. Red Star Line ocean steamers paved the way to a new life for about two million men, women and children between 1873 and 1934.

The historic sheds of the legendary shipping company with the red star in its flag currently house the Red Star Line Museum. The museum tells the story of the millions of Europeans who were courageous or desperate enough to leave their old life behind and look for a better existence. Via an emotional rollercoaster of high expectations and deep disappointments, racing adrenaline and sleepless nights the dream becomes reality for some of them. The former harbour sheds of the Red Star Line are the perfect place to make the stories of countless passengers palpable and visible. Their dreams and complaints are brought to life in this inspiring environment.

The Red Star Line Museum is a journey to the past and an encounter with the present. Migration might have a different face these days, but the human side of migration is timeless and universal.