TheNational Maritime Museum (NMM) is amaritime museum inGreenwich,London. It is part ofRoyal Museums Greenwich, a network of museums in theMaritime GreenwichWorld 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.
The museum was created by the National Maritime Museum Act 1934[2] under a Board of Trustees, appointed byHM Treasury. It is based on the generous donations ofSir James Caird (1864–1954). KingGeorge VI formally opened the museum on 27 April 1937 when his daughter PrincessElizabeth accompanied him for the journey along the Thames from London. The first director was SirGeoffrey Callender.[3]
CaptainHoratio Nelson byJohn Francis Rigaud, with Fort San Juan—the site of his most notable early achievement—in the background (Sugden,Nelson: A Dream of Glory, p. 464).Portrait of CaptainJames Cook byNathaniel Dance at the National Maritime Museum
Since the earliest timesGreenwich has had associations with the sea and navigation. It was a landing place for theRomans,[4]Henry VIII lived here,[5] theRoyal Navy has roots on the waterfront,[6] andCharles II founded theRoyal Observatory in 1675 for "finding the longitude of places".[7] The home ofGreenwich Mean Time and thePrime 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, and instruments for time-keeping and astronomy (based at the Observatory). Its holdings including paintings relating to Vice-AdmiralHoratio Nelson and CaptainJames Cook.[8]
An active loans programme ensures that items from the collection are seen in the UK and abroad.[9]
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, includingShips Clocks & Stars in 2014,Samuel Pepys: Plague, Fire, Revolution in 2015 andEmma Hamilton: Seduction and Celebrity in 2016.[10][11][12]
The collection of the National Maritime Museum also includes items taken from the GermanNaval Academy Mürwik after World War II, including several ship models, paintings and flags. The museum has been criticised for possessing what has been described as "looted art".[13][14][15][16][17] The museum regards these cultural objects as "war trophies", removed under the provisions of thePotsdam Conference.[18]
The museum awards the Caird Medal annually in honour of its major donor, Sir James Caird.[19]
In late August 2018, several groups were vying for the right to purchase the 5,500RMS Titanic relics that were an asset of the bankruptPremier Exhibitions.[20] Eventually, the National Maritime Museum,Titanic Belfast and Titanic Foundation Limited, as well asNational Museums Northern Ireland, joined together as a consortium that was raising money to purchase the 5,500 artifacts. The group intended to keep all of the items together as a single exhibit. The oceanographerRobert Ballard said that he favoured this bid as it would ensure that the memorabilia would be permanently displayed in Belfast (where theTitanic was built) and inGreenwich.[20] The museums were critical of the bid process set by the Bankruptcy Court in Jacksonville, Florida. The minimum bid for the auction on 11 October 2018 was set at US$21.5 million (£16.5m) and the consortium did not have enough funding to meet that amount.[21][22]
The museum was officially established in 1934 within the 200 acres (0.81 km2) ofGreenwich Park in the buildings formerly occupied by theRoyal Hospital School, before it moved toHolbrook in Suffolk.[23]
The gardens immediately to the north of the museum were reinstated in the late 1870s following construction of thecut-and-cover tunnel betweenGreenwich andMaze Hill stations. The tunnel comprised part of the final section of theLondon and Greenwich Railway and opened in 1878.[24]
A full redevelopment of the main galleries, centring on what was called Neptune Court, which was designed by Rick Mather Architects and funded by theHeritage Lottery Fund, was completed in 1999.[25]
In 2008, the museum announced that the Israeli shipping magnateSammy Ofer had donated £20m for a new gallery.[26]
Between 2016 and 2017 the National Maritime Museum reported 2.41 million visitors.[27]
A major refurbishment of the main galleries, including replacement of the Neptune Court roof, was undertaken in the early 2020s.[28] These works were completed in 2025, and the gallery was formally renamed the Ocean Court.[29]
The museum has an additional site nearby, thePrince Philip Maritime Collections Centre inKidbrooke, opened in 2018. This houses approximately 70,000 items from the collection, but is only open to the public on limited occasions, by means of (pre-booked) guided tours.[30][31]
The Caird Medal was instituted in 1984 to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the National Maritime Museum Act 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.[19]
TheNational 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 inFalmouth.[49]
^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.
^"The Art Newspaper". Archived fromthe original on 26 May 2008. Retrieved9 May 2009. How the London Maritime Museum rebuffed a German claim in 1965.]The Art Newspaper. 1 February 2007
^abR. J. B. KNIGHT, HONOR FROST, ERIC RIETH, MICHAEL WEBB, N. A. M. RODGER, DAVID H. ROBERTS, RICHARD BARKER, ALEXANDER FLINDER & LAWRENCE PHILLIPS (1989) (1989). "NOTES".The Mariner's Mirror.75 (3):210–276.doi:10.1080/00253359.1989.10656259.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
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