Maritime History

The history of maritime endeavor is contained primarily in museums, libraries and archives around the world, many searchable on-line. In addition, there are many Internet discussion groups and list-serves, bibliographies, magazines and journals, and other collections of material culture that evoke the wide spectrum of life by and on the sea.

Maritime Museums
Libraries, Archives and Specialty Collections
Ships and Boats
On-line Collections and Resources
Maritime Bibliographies

Maritime Museums

A majority of the major maritime museums or institutions with maritime collections are members of the associations below. Additional organizations can be found in the World Ocean Directory.

International Congress of Maritime Museums

Council of American Maritime Museums

The Navigation of Knowledge - Network of Historical Naval Dockyards

From Brunei to New Zealand - A selected listing of exhibits around the world

Libraries, Archives and Specialty Collections

Libraries and archives frequently contain maritime-related collections of rare books and manuscripts, maps and charts, portraits, letters, photographs, objects and ephemera. Additional material can also be found in local historical and genealogical societies, natural history museums, folk arts and craft collections, and science and environmental centers in coastal settings.

Mystic Seaport, G.W. Blunt White Library

The Mariners' Museum Research Library

The Smithsonian Institution Libraries

Institute for Nautical Archaeology Online Video Library An assortment of short videos on projects in Turkey, such as the Bronze Age shipwreck surveyed in 1983, sponge diving in the 1960s, and a tour of the Museum at Bodrum.

PORT: The Maritime Information Gateway A comprehensive source for maritime history and current maritime affairs, events, exhibitions, and more.

Maritime History Archive, Memorial University, Newfoundland

Ships and Boats

Maritime history is well told through the voyages of innumerable ships plying the high seas, transporting goods, people and ideas worldwide in a complex weave of successful passages through time. These ships are evident throughout the history of civilization. They evoke the triumphs and tragedies of human endeavor, the myriad individual stories that collectively proclaim human achievement.

World Ship Trust

European Maritime Heritage

Traditional Small Craft Association

Museum Fleets:

The German Maritime Museum, Bremerhaven

San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park

South Street Seaport Museum, New York

Mystic Seaport Museum

Australian National Maritime Museum

Watercraft Collections, Registers and Inventories:

Museum Small Craft Union List, United States

National Maritime Museum, Cornwall, United Kingdom

New Zealand Maritime Index

Historic Light Stations, United States

Australian Register of Historic Vessels

On-line Collections and Resources

Maritime patrimony is also interpreted through collections of artifacts, models, paintings, archival materials, and ephemera, much of which is found in institutional settings. Several museums and other organizations with large, encyclopedic collections have made these resources publicly accessible through on-line search facility and thematic bibliographies.

The National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, United Kingdom

Collections Search System for Maritime Museums in the Netherlands

The Mariners Museum, United States

The New Bedford Whaling Museum, United States