Address
Park Row
Greenwich
London
SE10 9NF
Telephone
020 8312 6516
Websites
www.rmg.co.uk/national-maritime-museum
www.rmg.co.uk/collections/caird-library (Caird Library & Archive at the National Maritime Museum)
Notes
The museum holds over 2.5 million items including books, manuscripts, photos, astronomical and navigational instruments, ship models and plans, coins, medals and flags, uniforms and weapons, plus historical art, film and photography all relating to maritime history.
The Caird Library, founded in 1936, is home to the world’s largest maritime library and archive collection and includes over 100,000 books, 20,000 pamphlets, 20,000 bound periodicals including 200 current titles and 8000 rare books spanning every aspect of maritime history. The library is primarily used by those researching links with the Royal Navy or Merchant Navy and includes a collection of Masters’ Certificates, Marine Society records including Registers of Apprentices sent to Merchant Ships 1772-1950. The library contains a wealth of printed sources including charts, maps and atlases. The library also contains manuscripts, including personal papers and diaries, official Admiralty records, and lieutenants’ logs. They also hold records of shipbuilding and shipping companies including Lloyd’s Register of Shipping from 1764.
Most Royal Navy records are held at The National Archives but the library does hold important Merchant Navy records such as Crew Lists for some years and registers of apprentices sent to merchant ships. The website includes an extensive collection of research guides and an online archives and manuscripts catalogue covering the museum and a catalogue covering the Caird library.
The site hosts Collections Online which provides online access to over 17,000 museum objects. The historic photograph collection allows users to search the collection and order copies. The collection includes photos of a more general nature such as river views and anything associated with rivers and the seas.
The National Maritime Museum runs the Maritime Memorials site which is an online index commemorating British people with maritime related work or careers or the victims of disaster at sea as recorded on cemetery and public memorials.
