National Maritime Museum

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For the equivalents of other nations, see National Maritime Museums.
National Maritime Museum
Established 1937
Location Greenwich, London SE10, England Flag of the United Kingdom
Collection size 2 million + objects
Museum area 200 acres
Visitor figures 1,557,249 (2006)
Director Kevin Fewster, AM, FRSA
Nearest tube station(s) North Greenwich, Greenwich station, Cutty Sark (DLR)
Website NMM Official Website

The National Maritime Museum (NMM) in Greenwich, England is the leading maritime museum of the United Kingdom and may be the largest museum of its kind in the world. The historic buildings forming part of the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site, it also incorporates the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, and 17th-century Queen’s House.

Contents

[edit] Creation and official opening

The Museum was created by the National Maritime Act of 1934 Chapter 43,[1] under a Board of Trustees, appointed by H.M. Treasury. It is based on the generous donations of Sir James Caird (1864–1954). King George VI formally opened the Museum in April 27, 1937 when his daughter Princess Elizabeth, later Queen Elizabeth II accompanied him for the journey along the Thames from London. The first Director was Sir Geoffrey Callender.[2]

[edit] Collection

Portrait of Captain James Cook by Nathaniel Dance at the National Maritime Museum.
Portrait of Captain James Cook by Nathaniel Dance at the National Maritime Museum.

Since earliest times Greenwich has had associations with the sea and navigation. It was a landing place for the Romans; Henry VIII lived here; the navy has roots on the waterfront; and Charles II founded the Royal Observatory in 1675 for "finding the longitude of places". The home of Greenwich Mean Time and the Prime Meridian since 1884, Greenwich has long been a centre for astronomical study, while navigators across the world have set their clocks according to its time of day.

The Museum has the most important holdings in the world on the history of Britain at sea comprising more than two million items, including maritime art (both British and 17th-century Dutch), cartography, manuscripts including official public records, ship models and plans, scientific and navigational instruments, instruments for time-keeping and astronomy (based at the Observatory). Its British portraits collection is exceeded in size only by that of the National Portrait Gallery and its holdings relating to Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson and Captain James Cook, among many other individuals, are unrivalled.

The Bretagne, painting by Jules Achille Noël, 1859, at the National Maritime Museum
The Bretagne, painting by Jules Achille Noël, 1859, at the National Maritime Museum

It has the world's largest maritime historical reference library (100,000 volumes) including books dating back to the 15th century. An active loans programme ensures that items from the collection are seen in the UK and abroad. Through its displays, exhibitions and outreach programmes the Museum also explores our current relationship with the sea and the future of the sea as an environmental force and resource.

By virtue of its pairing with the Royal Observatory, the Museum enjoys a unique conjunction of subjects (history, science and the arts), enabling it to trace the movement and accomplishments of people and the origins and consequences of empire. The outcome of the Museum's work is to achieve, for all its users at home and overseas, a greater understanding of British economic, cultural, social, political and maritime history and its consequences in the world today.

The collection of the National Maritime Museum also includes items taken from Germany after World War II, including several ship models and paintings. The museum has been criticized for possessing what has been described as "Looted art".[3] The Museum regards these cultural objects as "war trophies", removed under the provisions of the Potsdam Conference.

The Museum awards the Caird Medal annually in honour of its major donor, Sir James Caird.

[edit] The site

The museum lit at night
The museum lit at night

The museum was officially established in 1934 within the 200 acres of Greenwich Royal Park in the buildings of what was the former Royal Hospital School (or Royal Naval School). It includes the Queen's House (part of the historic park-and-palace landscape of "Maritime Greenwich", which was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997) and the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, until 1948 the home of the Royal Greenwich Observatory.

Entry portico of the museum.
Entry portico of the museum.

The gardens immediately to the north of the museum were reinstated in the late 1870s following construction of the cut-and-cover tunnel between Greenwich and Maze Hill stations. The tunnel comprised part of the final section of the London and Greenwich Railway and opened in 1878.

Flamsteed House (1675-76), the original part of the Royal Observatory, was designed by Sir Christopher Wren and was the first purpose-built scientific research facility in Britain.

In 1953, the Old Royal Observatory became part of the Museum. Flamsteed House, was first opened for visitors by Queen Elizabeth II in 1960.

The 17th-century Queen’s House, an early classical building designed by Inigo Jones, is the keystone of the historic "park and palace" landscape of maritime Greenwich.

All the Museum buildings have been subsequently upgraded. A full redevelopment of the main galleries, centring on what is now the Neptune Court, and funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, was completed in 1999.

The Queen's House was refurbished in 2001 to become the heart of displays of art from the Museum's collection.

In May 2007 a major capital project, "Time and Space", opened up the entire Royal Observatory site for the benefit of visitors. The £16 million transformation features three new modern astronomy galleries, four new time galleries, facilities for collections conservation and research, a learning centre and a 120-seat planetarium designed to introduce the world beyond the night sky.

At the end of March 2008, the museum announced that Israeli shipping magnate, Sammy Ofer, has given the Museum, £20M for a new gallery. Mr Ofer who has close contacts with the London shipping community, was a Royal Naval sailor, and part of his shipping operation is London-based.

[edit] Directors of the National Maritime Museum

A propellor at the National Maritime Museum.
A propellor at the National Maritime Museum.
  • 1937 to 1946 - Geoffrey Callender
  • 1947 to 1966 - Frank George Griffith Carr [4]
  • 1967 to 1983 - Basil Jack Greenhill
  • 1983 to 2000 - Richard Louis Ormond CBE (born 1939) [5]
  • 2000 to 2007 - Rear Admiral Roy Clare CBE (born 1950)[6]
  • 2007 to present - Dr Kevin Fewster [7]

[edit] Caird Medal

The Caird Medal was instituted in 1984 to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the National Maritime Museum Act of 1934 that established the museum. The medal is awarded annually to "an individual who, in the opinion of the Trustees of the National Maritime Museum, has done conspicuously important work in the field of the Museum's interests and is of a nature which involves communicating with the public. The medal is named for Sir James Caird (1864–1954), the principal donor at the founding of the National Maritime Museum.

The award of the medal is associated with the Caird Lecture, a public lecture presented by the recipient, which is usually published after the lecture.

[edit] The Caird Medalists

[edit] Other British maritime museums

NMM Cornwall, Falmouth
NMM Cornwall, Falmouth

The National Maritime Museum Cornwall is a fully independent museum, a development of the original FIMI (Falmouth International Maritime Initiative) partnership created in 1992 and the result of collaboration between the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich and the former Cornwall Maritime Museum in Falmouth.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ National Maritime Museum, Governing Acts of Parliament.
  2. ^ ODNB article by Michael Lewis, ‘Callender, Sir Geoffrey Arthur Romaine (1875–1946)’, rev. H. C. G. Matthew, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [1] accessed 23 Sept 2007.
  3. ^ Martin Bailey three articles: (1) "Revealed: Nazi painting in London’s Maritime Museum looted by British." The Art Newspaper. January 3, 2007, (2) How the London Maritime Museum rebuffed a German claim in 1965. The Art Newspaper. February 1, 2007, (3) "Revealed: six paintings in Maritime Museum were seized by British troops from Nazi Germany." The Art Newspaper. February 1, 2007
  4. ^ Biography Frank Carr: Ship saver by Peter Elphick, states "Meanwhile, in 1966, the Trustees of the National Maritime Museum dismissed Frank Carr from his post as Director, two years before he was due to retire. No one seems to know the full circumstances behind this highly controversial decision, but it seems that the Trustees wanted a change of course."
  5. ^ Who's who entry for Richard Ormond
  6. ^ Who's who entry for Roy Clare
  7. ^ Biography of Director Kevin Fewster on NMM Website.
  8. ^ Penguin Books author biography: Richard Ollard, accessed 20 October 2007.
  9. ^ The Caird Lecture, 1999, by Elisabeth Mann-Borgese: "The economics and governance of the oceans" in Journal for Maritime Research, January 2000. accessed 20 October 2007.
  10. ^ The Caird Lecture, 2000, by John Hattendorf: "The Anglo-French Naval Wars (1689-1815) in twentieth-century naval thought"
  11. ^ Reference to David Attenborough's Caird Medal Address in Cook's Log: the quarterly newsletter of the Captain Cook Society,Volume 27 No.4 (Oct-Dec 2004) accessed 20 October 2007.
  12. ^ Institute of Historical Research Newsletter 2005: Peter Kennedy's Caird Medal Address noted accessed 20 October 2007.
  13. ^ Caird Lecture, 2006, by David Armitage: "The Elephant and the Whale: Empires of Land and Sea"

[edit] External links

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Coordinates: 51°28′52″N, 0°00′20″W