National Maritime Museum

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National Maritime Museum

Kent


The museum's main entrance
Type: Museum
Location
Grid reference: TQ38717770
Location: 51°28’52"N, 0°0’20"W
Town: Greenwich
History
Built 1616 – 1637
By: Inigo Jones
Museum
Information

The National Maritime Museum is a museum housed in the central Block of the Queen's House in Greenwich Park in Greenwich in Kent. The building, by the renowned architect Inigo Jones, was begun in 1616 and completed in 1637. It formerly housed the Royal Hospital School. It is a Grade I listed building.[1]

The building is connected by colonnades to side wings. It stands in storeys, topped by a low-pitched leaded roof. On the north front is a double-curved stair to a balustraded terrace.

The museum is one of a string of museums collectively known as 'Royal Museums Greenwich', in the historic heart of Greenwich now known as the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site. Like other publicly funded national museums in the United Kingdom, it has no general admission charge; there are admission charges for most side-gallery temporary exhibitions, usually supplemented by many loaned works from other museums.

Creation and official opening

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

Collection

Portrait of Captain James Cook by Nathaniel Dance at the Museum

Greenwich was chosen for the new museum because since the earliest times the town has had associations with the sea and navigation. It was a landing place for the Romans,[3] King Henry VIII lived here,[4] the Navy has roots on the waterfront,[5] and Charles II founded the Royal Observatory in 1675 for "finding the longitude of places".[6]

Since King Charles's time Greenwich has long been a centre for astronomical study, as a result of which here was settled the Greenwich Meridian as the prime meridian for navigation worldwide and accordingly Greenwich Mean Time.

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 holdings including paintings relating to Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson and Captain James Cook.[7]

The Bretagne, by Jules Achille Noël, 1859, at the Museum
Admiral George Keith Elphinstone, 1st Viscount Keith by George Sanders

An active loans programme ensures that items from the collection are seen in the UK and abroad.[8]

The museum aims to achieve a greater understanding of British economic, cultural, social, political and maritime history and its consequences in the world today. The museum plays host to various exhibitions, including Ships Clocks & Stars in 2014, Samuel Pepys: Plague, Fire, Revolution in 2015 and Emma Hamilton: Seduction and Celebrity in 2016.[9][10][11]

The collection of the National Maritime Museum also includes items taken from the German Naval Academy Mürwik after the Second World War, including several ship models, paintings and flags.[12] The museum regards these cultural objects as "war trophies", removed under the provisions of the Potsdam Conference.[13]

The museum awards the Caird Medal annually in honour of its major donor, Sir James Caird.[14]

In 2018, the museum was part of a consortium, with Titanic Belfast and Titanic Foundation Limited, as well as National Museums Northern Ireland, which made a failed attempt to buy the 5,500 relics of the RMS Titanic that were an asset of the bankrupt Premier Exhibitions.[15] The bid process set by the Bankruptcy Court in Jacksonville, Florida however set a minimum bid for the auction at US$21.5 million, which the consortium could not afford.[16][17]

The site

The museum was officially established in 1934 within the 200 acres of Greenwich Royal Park in the buildings formerly occupied by the Royal Hospital School, before it moved to Holbrook in Suffolk.

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.[18]

A full redevelopment of the main galleries, centring on what is now the Neptune Court, which was designed by Rick Mather Architects, was completed in 1999.[19]

For a year between 2016 and 2017 the National Maritime Museum reported 2.41 million visitors.[20]

A Type 23 frigate propeller at the National Maritime Museum

See also

Outside links

 ("Wikimedia Commons" has material
about National Maritime Museum)

References

  1. ↑ National Heritage List 1211481: National Maritime Museum (Grade I listing)
  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 September 2007.
  3. ↑ "Greenwick Park: Roman Remains". Royal Parks. https://www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/greenwich-park/things-to-see-and-do/ancient-greenwich/roman-remains. Retrieved 29 December 2018. 
  4. ↑ "Greenwich Palace: Archaeologists discover ruined remains of Henry VIII's birthplace". The Independent. 15 August 2017. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/greenwich-palace-henry-viii-birthplace-remains-discovered-archaeologists-old-royal-naval-college-a7894331.html. Retrieved 29 December 2018. 
  5. ↑ "A brief history of the Old Royal Naval College". South London Club. https://www.southlondonclub.co.uk/blog/brief-history-of-the-old-royal-naval-college. Retrieved 29 December 2018. 
  6. ↑ "Charles II and the Royal Observatory, Greenwich". Royal Collection Trust. https://www.rct.uk/collection/themes/exhibitions/charles-ii-art-power/the-queens-gallery-buckingham-palace/charles-ii-and-the-royal-observatory-greenwich. Retrieved 29 December 2018. 
  7. ↑ "Captain James Cook, 1728–79". Royal Museums Greenwich. http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/14102.html. Retrieved 29 December 2018. 
  8. ↑ "Collaborative Doctoral Award with the National Maritime Museum (2010–13)". York Art History Collections. http://yahcs.york.ac.uk/studentships/phd/cda-nmm-2010-13/. Retrieved 29 December 2018. 
  9. ↑ Falk, Seb. "Review of Ships, Clocks & Stars: The Quest for Longitude". http://journal.sciencemuseum.ac.uk/browse/issue-02/review-of-ships-clocks-stars/. Retrieved 24 February 2017. 
  10. ↑ Smart, Alastair. "Samuel Pepys, National Maritime Museum, review: 'history rivetingly brought to life'". https://www.telegraph.co.uk/art/what-to-see/samuel-pepys-national-maritime-museum-review/. Retrieved 24 February 2017. 
  11. ↑ Jones, Jonathan. "Emma Hamilton: Seduction and Celebrity review – the betrayal of Nelson's mistress". https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/nov/01/emma-hamilton-seduction-and-celebrity-review-national-maritime-museum. Retrieved 24 February 2017. 
  12. ↑ 'Revealed: six paintings in Maritime Museum were seized by British troops from Nazi Germany': The Art Newspaper. 1 February 2007
  13. ↑ Littlewood, Kevin; Butler, Beverley (1998). Of Ships and Stars: Maritime Heritage and the Founding of the National Maritime Museum Greenwich. Continuum International Publishing Group. p. 117. ISBN 978-0485115376. https://books.google.com/?id=yYEOjbU2FSMC&pg=PA117&lpg=PA117&dq=War+Trophies+Committee+National+Maritime+Museum#v=onepage&q=War%20Trophies%20Committee%20National%20Maritime%20Museum&f=false. 
  14. ↑ "Prizes and fellowships in naval and maritime history". University of Exeter. https://humanities.exeter.ac.uk/history/research/centres/maritime/prizes/. Retrieved 29 December 2018. 
  15. ↑ Dawn McCarty, Jef Feeley, Chris Dixon (2018-07-24). "James Cameron: Getting Titanic Artifacts to U.K. Would Be 'a Dream'". National Geographic. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2018/07/news-titanic-uk-belfast-bankruptcy-cameron/. Retrieved 2018-09-02. 
  16. ↑ Titanic: Salvaged treasure may not return to Belfast BBC 5 October 2018
  17. ↑ Bankrupt Premier Exhibitions Inc. owns 5,500 items from the ill-fated ocean liner The Basch Report 3 October 2018
  18. ↑ "SER Lines and Stations". Stephen Chapman. http://rail.felgall.com/ser.htm. Retrieved 29 December 2018. 
  19. ↑ "Neptune Court, Greenwich Maritime Museum". Architects Journal. https://www.ajbuildingslibrary.co.uk/projects/display/id/2701. Retrieved 29 December 2018. 
  20. ↑ "National Maritime Museum Annual Report and Accounts 2016-2017". https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/628588/HC_108_NMM_16-17_Web.pdf. 


Royal Museums Greenwich, in Kent

The Cutty Sark • National Maritime Museum • Queen's House • Royal Observatory, Greenwich

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