Policy review procedure:

The Collections Development Policy will be published and reviewed from time to time, at least once every five years.

Arts Council England and The National Archives will be notified of any changes to this Collections Development Policy, and the implications of any such changes for the future of collections.

1. Organisational context

1.1 Royal Museums Greenwich (RMG) owns and manages four sites: the Royal Observatory, Cutty Sark, the Queen’s House and the National Maritime Museum. The permanent collection is owned by the National Maritime Museum and displayed across all four sites. Collections storage facilities include the Prince Philip Maritime Collections Centre in Kidbrooke and the Brass Foundry in Woolwich.

The organisation’s mission and vision are set out in the RMG PLAN 2023-27 Building Reach, Reputation and Resilience and RMG’s content strategy Charting Our Course.

1.2 RMG’s founding legislation is the National Maritime Museum Act 1934 that established a Board of Trustees, which is a statutory corporation by the name of the Trustees of the National Maritime Museum and which has the general management and control of the Museum. As RMG’s governing body, the Board is responsible for ensuring that acquisition and disposal activities are carried out openly and with transparency.

Section 7 of the Act establishes the Trustees of the National Maritime Museum as an exempt charity therefore the Trustees also act in accordance with the requirements of charity law.

1.3 By definition, RMG has a long-term purpose and holds collections in trust for the benefit of the public in relation to its stated objectives. The governing body therefore accepts the principle that sound curatorial reasons must be established before consideration is given to any acquisition to the collection, or the disposal of any items in the museum’s collection.

1.4 Acquisitions outside the current stated policy will only be made in exceptional circumstances.

1.5 RMG recognises its responsibility, when acquiring additions to its collections, to ensure that care of collections, documentation arrangements and use of collections will meet the requirements of the Museum and Archive Service Accreditation Standards. This includes using Spectrum primary procedures[1] and the International Standards for Archival Description for collections management.[2] It will take into account limitations on collecting imposed by such factors as staffing, storage capacity and care of collection arrangements.

1.6 RMG will undertake due diligence and make every effort not to acquire, whether by purchase, gift, bequest or exchange, any object or specimen unless the governing body or responsible officer is satisfied that the museum can acquire a valid title to the item in question.

1.7 RMG will not undertake disposal by sale motivated principally by the reason of raising cash funds.

2. History of the collections

Royal Museums Greenwich is one of Britain’s newest national museums, having been founded through the National Maritime Museum Act in 1934 and opened to the public in 1937. Its collections, however, have a longer history.

RMG’s founding collections include those received on loan from Greenwich Hospital. Acting on the interests of his wife, Queen Mary, in 1694 King William III issued a Royal Charter granting a 'Royal Palace and Grounds at Greenwich' on the southern bank of the Thames as the site for a hospital for old and disabled seamen. Work on the Royal Hospital for Seamen began in 1696 but was not completed until 1751. An important part of the building was its ‘Painted Hall’ with wall and ceiling paintings created by James Thornhill. From 1824 the Hall became the venue for a National Gallery of Naval Art, displaying more than 300 paintings by artists such as J.M.W. Turner and Sir Joshua Reynolds, as well as artefacts relating to British naval history, such as Nelson’s garments and relics from the Franklin search expeditions. The Royal Hospital for Seamen closed in 1869 but the Gallery remained open until 1936. Most of the artworks were then transferred to the newly founded National Maritime Museum.

Another significant founding collection was a group of ship models (as well as tools, machines, figureheads, drawings and paintings) brought together in the mid-nineteenth century for the Admiralty by Sir Robert Seppings, Surveyor of the Navy. Originally displayed at Somerset House (the former Navy Board offices), in 1864 the collection was relocated to South Kensington Museum where the models provided a teaching and reference collection for a newly-created School of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering. Following the closure of the Royal Hospital for Seamen, in 1873 the Admiralty established the Royal Naval College in the former hospital buildings at Greenwich. Courses formerly taught at the School in South Kensington (and in Portsmouth) were relocated there. Also transferred, in 1869, was the collection of ship models, which joined a group of models in the National Gallery of Naval Art, becoming part of a new Royal Naval Museum displayed over three floors in the Queen Anne block of the College.

Campaigning for a national maritime museum began in the early twentieth century with the foundation of the Society for Nautical Research (SNR) in 1910, which pressed for the establishment of ‘a Maritime Museum of National importance and National dignity’.[3] By 1927 government support had been secured and, later that year, a board of trustees was established to guide the creation of a National Maritime Museum. Key figures included Conservative peer Lord Stanhope, Chairman, Professor Geoffrey Callender, who would become the Museum’s first director, and Sir James Caird, a wealthy shipping magnate. Over the period from 1928 to the Museum’s opening in 1937, Caird – acting on the advice of Callender – spent over £300,000 on art and artefacts for its collection including from auction houses and dealers across Europe. Important acquisitions included a collection of ship models owned by the Training Ship Mercury, purchased in 1929. Especially significant was Caird’s support of the purchase of the Macpherson collection of maritime prints and oil paintings, which a public appeal had failed to secure. Other public campaigns organised by the SNR to save objects and collections were more successful, as were its attempts to solicit donations.

In terms of the initial scope of the Museum, Callender and Caird shared ‘a nationalist vision that focused on naval successes from the Armada to Trafalgar and the fall of Napoleon as the backbone of a triumphalist narrative of British maritime history’.[4] In a 1934 letter to Caird, Callender identified four key collection strands:

(1) Exhibits illustrative of the development, services and history of the Royal Navy and Merchant Navy of Great Britain;

(2) Exhibits illustrating voyages of exploration and discovery by sea, together with logs, charts, and instruments devised by sea-faring men and navigators;

(3) Exhibits illustrating the careers and biographies of individuals eminent in the story of the Royal Navy and Merchant Navy of Great Britain;

(4) Exhibits illustrating the development of the ships and vessels employed by sea-faring men, the equipment of such vessels, and of Ports and Harbours in which they were built and reconditioned.[5]

In 1936, the extensive collection of naval art and artefacts developed by the Royal Hospital for Seamen was transferred across Romney Road to the National Maritime Museum, which had been granted the Queen’s House and buildings formerly occupied by the Royal Hospital School, in advance of its opening to the public the following year. Consolidation and further extension of the Museum’s estate continued into wartime. As well as raising practical challenges and welcoming new fine art acquisitions (via the War Artists Advisory Committee), the Second World War intensified the need for the Museum to establish the scope of its collecting, given the risk of overlap with the Science Museum (with its significant shipping collection) and the Imperial War Museum (which, established to commemorate the Great War, was reconsidering its purpose in view of the current conflict). Transfers of items accordingly took place in the late 1940s.

The move of the scientific functions of the Royal Greenwich Observatory to Herstmonceux in the early 1950s saw the National Maritime Museum take over its buildings and most of its important collection of horological and astronomical instruments. The remainder of this collection was transferred in 1998. Other significant collections acquired in the mid-century period include the Captain Eric Palmer collection of Dutch and early Netherlandish paintings, and the paintings and some 700 drawings by the Van de Veldes gifted to the Museum by Sir Bruce Ingram.

Collecting continued on a relatively large scale between the 1950s and the 1980s. The decline of British shipping and shipbuilding industries across these decades enabled the Museum to acquire significant business and technical records, and the closure of Royal Navy shore bases yielded a range of equipment and other naval material. However, the diminishing national significance of the Navy and, more generally, of the idea of Britain as a seafaring nation, prompted reflection, as well as internal debate about the opportunities posed by proactive collecting, and by collecting modern material.[6] These issues were revisited in the early 1960s, when it was agreed that the Museum’s aim was to achieve:

A chronological record from earliest times to the present day, covering ‘all aspects of British maritime development’ and selective aspects of foreign history, and illustrating ‘every branch of the mariner’s art, the shipwright’s trade, the pilot’s skill and the navigator’s science’.[7]

This chronological perspective was expanded from the 1970s with an increasing emphasis on the wider social and economic aspects of maritime history, reflecting growing academic interests in social history. The recognised desire to strengthen the Museum’s ability to reflect late twentieth century developments also informed its approach to collecting.

From the late 1980s to the present, collecting has continued on a strategic basis. Reduced funding for acquisitions has limited the scope for purchases, and donations and bequests have remained important. Notable acquisitions over the earlier part of this period included Captain James Cook by William Hodges (1987, BHC4227), Princess Elizabeth, later Queen of Bohemia by Robert Peake (1990, BHC4237), the Sandwich papers (1991–98), Anne of Denmark by John de Critz (1995, BHC4251), Captain Scott’s sledge flag and Shackleton’s boat compass (1999, ZBA1609–10).

In the 2000s, strategic acquisition included Eddystone Lighthouse by Isaac Sailmaker (2000, BHC1796), British Fleet at Anchor off St Lucia by Dominic Serres (2001, ZBA2204), the Sulley ‘C’ marine timekeeper (2001, ZBA2248), the Michael Graham-Stewart slavery collection (2002), the Bligh Bounty relics (2002, ZBA2701–03), the Lady Nelson letters (2002), The Parting Cheer by Henry Nelson O’Neil (2003, ZBA4022), and the Tunstall–Corbett archive (2004).

In the 2010s, major purchases included the Markham papers (2012–15), Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle by Yinka Shonibare (2012, ZBA9268), Gibson’s of Scilly shipwreck photography collection (2013), Kangaroo and Dingo by George Stubbs (2013, ZBA5754–55), the lantern clock by George Graham (2013, ZBA5479), the Oosterwijck marine timekeeper (2014, ZBA6944), the Hilton Trafalgar flags (2014, ZBA6945–46), Richard Wright’s installation No Title (2015) in the Great Hall of the Queen’s House, Elizabeth I, the ‘Armada Portrait’ (2016, ZBA7719), and Ship of Fools by Kehinde Wiley (2018, ZBA8636). Major gifts, bequests and transfers have included the Borlase Warren papers (2001), the Lord–MacQuitty Titanic collection (2002), the Maskelyne collection (2009), London Missionary Society collection (2013), the Cutty Sark (2015, ZBA7518), and the hugely significant Ministry of Defence (MOD) collection (2017), which includes John Harrison’s marine timekeepers and a large group of paintings associated with the second and third Pacific voyages of Captain Cook.

In the 2020s, the emphasis has increasingly fallen on objects and images which reflect human experiences of maritime contexts not represented by the historical collections. RMG’s Contemporary Maritime strand, generously supported by Lloyd’s Register Foundation, is enabling the organisation to also engage more actively with current issues such as geo-political developments, labour history and ocean sustainability. Recent acquisitions include a ‘sip and puff’ helmet used by Natasha Lambert BEM in her 2020 transatlantic yacht journey (2021, ZBA9445), a set of commemorative stamps produced by the Ukrainian Post Office to mark opposition to the Russian invasion (2022, ZBA9591) and a pastel portrait of a Wren officer by Joseph R. R. McCulloch (2022, ZBA9617).

3. An overview of current collections

In 1937, the Director of the new National Maritime Museum described its ambitions as follows:

The scope of the Museum has never … been formulated in set terms; but it may roughly be said that it has been founded for the illustration and study of the maritime history of Great Britain in its widest sense. This province embraces the work of the Royal Navy, the Merchant Navy and the Fishing Fleets; all that pertains to the lives and activities of seamen; and maritime history, archaeology and art of other nations in so far as they contribute to the proper understanding of British maritime development.[8]

This “widest sense” of maritime history included the history and development of the Royal Navy and Merchant Navy; voyages of ocean navigation; the careers and biographies of individual prominent in these histories and the technical development of ships and vessels. The founders’ early interest in the history of science (particularly navigation) was consolidated through the incorporation of the Royal Observatory in the 1950s and became an important aspect of the collections. The later addition of the Cutty Sark, in 2015, further expanded the Museum’s founding interests in trade, commerce and exploitation of the ocean environment.

Historic interests and motivations have generated some distinctive and uniquely important areas of collections strength such as Dutch and Flemish marine seascapes, British marine painting, naval portraiture and uniforms, ship models, ship figureheads, ship plans, globes and navigational instruments, marine chronometers and papers associated with Naval officers and the Merchant Navy. Other types of artefact – for example ceramics, jewellery, portrait miniatures and furniture – were acquired in a more piecemeal and opportunistic way because of their association with particular people or events important to British maritime history. Important cross-collections themes supported by the historic collection include Horatio Nelson and his contemporaries; Pacific exploration; Polar exploration; maritime disasters; the Merchant Navy and the Royal Navy.

As is typical with museum collections formed during this period, the collections have traditionally been organised by discipline, taxonomy and/or type. Below is offered a summary of each collections area.

Fine Art

  • Oil Paintings: Approximately 3,700 items, of which about 2,700 are easel paintings and 1,000 are oil sketches. An internationally significant group of maritime-related paintings, the collection also encompasses paintings of important royal subjects. The Dutch and Flemish seascapes number some 400 paintings and include a group of works by Willem van de Velde, father and son. The British portraits collection is exceeded in size only at the National Portrait Gallery and the Scottish Portrait Gallery.
  • Prints and Drawings: Approximately 65,000 prints, drawings and watercolours, ranging from the sixteenth century through to the twenty-first. Historically, the collection has represented the principal subject areas of the Museum, particularly naval actions, portraits, ship portraits, and seaports. The collection of almost 1,500 Van de Velde drawings is the largest in the world and provides a unique insight into their studio process. Other notable subject areas represented include Greenwich, naval caricatures, Nelson, and a group of artists’ sketchbooks, many by serving naval officers.
  • Portrait Miniatures: Around 250 works ranging in date from about 1540 to 1930. Most are small-scale single portraits – mainly of naval officers – usually executed in watercolour on paper, card, vellum or enamel and displayed in glazed metal frames.
  • Sculpture: The collection’s strength is in portraiture, mainly portrait busts (which form the majority), statues or reliefs. Of the 105 items, 24 represent Nelson. Most of the others are naval officers or scientists (mainly astronomers) connected with the history of the Royal Observatory.
  • Fine Art Photography: This category contains 270 items, dating from the 2010s and 2020s. The scope of this collection is currently ill-defined and would benefit from refinement. At present, the core of the collection is contemporary art created using photographic media, but it also includes winning images from the Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition, portraits of oral history subjects taken by members of curatorial staff and documentary images of contemporary events.

Applied and Decorative Arts

  • Ceramics: 2,090 items dating mainly from the eighteenth to the twentieth century. Includes pieces commemorating individuals (particularly Nelson), events and vessels; services associated with individuals and items made for use at sea.
  • Glassware: Around 560 objects. A large portion of the collection is commemorative and represents celebrated figures and events of the Georgian navy (1714–1837).
  • Decorative Art Objects: Over 800 objects from the mid-eighteenth to the twentieth centuries, primarily small decorative art items including small boxes (notably patch boxes), fans and other costume accessories, cut paper pictures, furniture fittings, small sculptures and portrait plaques; most commemorating the Royal Navy.
  • Jewellery: Around 405 objects dating from the sixteenth to the late twentieth century, consisting largely of seals, watches, broaches, buckles and lockets. Strengths are in the Georgian navy, specifically in events relating to Nelson, as well as personal possessions of significant individuals from the period of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.
  • Sailors’ Craftwork: Sailor-made objects, found across the collections, include scrimshaw, woolwork pictures, ship models, embroidered handkerchiefs, woodwork, engraved coins, carved coconuts and peach stones, ditty boxes and knotwork representing the range of creative practices that naval, whaling and mercantile sailors have engaged in from the late eighteenth century.
  • Furniture: Approximately 400 objects including sea-going/travel furniture; writing slopes; officers‘ personal furniture; and ratings‘ ditty boxes. Larger objects encompass cabin fittings, liner furnishings and furnishings from the Royal Yachts. Objects with personal associations include the domestic furnishings of notable individuals such as James Cook and Nelson.
  • Plate: Some 800 objects and ranges in date from the early seventeenth to the twenty-first centuries. The collection provides a good survey of styles and techniques and represents the work of master craftspeople such as Paul Storr and Fabergé.
  • Uniforms, Clothing and Textiles: The Royal Navy uniform collection is of national significance and contains over 7,392 items of regulation dress, ratings’ clothing, ceremonial wear and accessories from the first Royal Naval uniform pattern of 1748 through to the twentieth century. Highlights include a captain’s full-dress coat of the 1774 pattern and five of Horatio Nelson’s coats. The collections also includes some merchant service uniforms (largely dating from the twentieth century) and civilian clothing. The textiles collection includes roller and plate-printed textiles commemorating the Georgian navy, similarly samplers, mourning pictures and stevengraphs (most are Nelson-related).
  • Flags: An internationally significant collection of 1,055 items covering the Merchant and Royal Navy, trophy, sledge, yachting and national flags, and heraldic standards. It includes a large collection of house flags (shipping companies); also flags from all continents, including examples from Imperial China and Africa, as well as flags captured by the Royal Navy from other European powers.

Coins, Medals and Heraldry

  • Coins and Medals: Around 3,000 items including 1,950 commemorative medals dating from the Renaissance period onwards which mark international maritime events as well as individual achievement, and 607 coins and trade tokens with maritime associations or depictions. There is also an extensive collection of 3,000 orders and medals covering maritime conflict since at least the seventeenth century. This aspect of the collection also includes naval and civilian honours and awards for bravery at sea, such as lifesaving.
  • Ship Badges, Heraldry and Seal Casts: 912 full-sized ship badges, tompions, boat badges and presentation badges; most acquired in the post-war period. Seal casts number 1,520 and include casts of colonial seals, of states, cities and towns; seals of office; of British and foreign corporate societies, of coins and tokens and of commemorative medals and awards. The heraldry collection comprises ninety-four items, including honours boards, war service plaques, coats of arms, desk seals, stall plates and crests.

Polar Equipment, Relics and World Cultures

  • Polar Equipment: Over 900 items which span various collections including fragmentary material associated with the 1845 Franklin expedition and polar equipment and clothing associated with later Arctic and Antarctic expeditions.
  • Relics: 811 relics including souvenirs made from ship timbers and metal; parts of ships or items associated with ships, corporate bodies or buildings. 975 antiquities relating to social history, including preserved food and food containers, items relating to maritime custom and superstition, bar, office and smoking impedimenta, submarine cable, natural history and geological specimens, trade signs, animal collars, musical instruments and gramophone records, toys and games, and printed ephemera.
  • World Cultures: 546 items representing indigenous forms of cultural production in northern North America, South America, Sub-Saharan Africa, South and Southeast Asia and the Pacific.

Tools and Ship Equipment

  • Tools and Ship Equipment: Iron and wooden boatbuilding tools; lifesaving, lighting and diving equipment; and large shipboard equipment and ship components. Tools include whaling equipment; drawing instruments; weights and measures; material relating to punishment and restraint; medical equipment; keys and padlocks; seamen’s knives; and diving equipment and protective clothing. Ship equipment is divided into two categories: fittings, which are generally small pieces; and fixtures, which are larger items and component parts of ships.
  • Figureheads and Ship Carvings: 170 figureheads (including scroll heads) and approximately forty-two other pieces of decorative ship carving including trail (or name) boards, stern boards, stern figures, and other fragments of various sorts. Most are from British merchant ships and warships, covering a wide range of iconography, styles and carvers.

Cartography

  • Atlases, Charts, Maps and Plans: Approximately 900 atlases, ranging in date from the thirteenth century onwards. These offer an international resource for the study of marine cartography, particularly strong on British publications throughout, and for Dutch and French atlases during their periods of maritime ascendancy. The collection of unbound cartographic items comprises approximately 30,000 sea charts, celestial charts, maps and plans, dating from 1456 to the present day.
  • Globes and Globe Gores: An internationally significant collection of nearly 400 globes and globe gores from 1537 to the present day including terrestrial globes, celestial globes (including star-finders) and globes representing other bodies in the solar system.

Science and Technology

  • Astronomical Instruments: 1,200 objects most of which relate to the working history of the Observatory. Many key instruments are displayed within the ROG buildings, in the same location as they were formerly used. Acquisitions made by James Caird include 53 astrolabes dated between the thirteenth and the twentieth century, and from both Islamic and Western traditions, thirty armillary spheres, and 361 sundials.
  • Navigational Instruments and Oceanography: More than 3,200 items, of which just over 1,300 are from the Admiralty Compass Observatory collection. It includes instruments for celestial navigation; compasses and related objects (including lodestones); computing instruments; depth sounding; drawing instruments; electronic position-fixing including radio aids and GPS; meteorological instruments; plotting and charting instruments; quadrants; radar; rangefinders; speed and distance measuring instruments; surveying instruments; telescopes (hand-held); traverse boards. Also, seventy items relating to oceanography, dating from the mid-nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries. Items include bathythermographs, current meters, hydrometers and water collecting bottles.
  • Horology: 1,000 horological objects with a focus on three key areas: precision marine timekeeping for navigators, precision timekeeping for astronomers and the broader area of domestic timekeeping and time distribution.
  • Natural History: Around 30 objects relating to a range of maritime endeavours and expeditions. Animal-related objects include sawfish rostrums, barnacles, and a puff adder; geological specimens include ore samples from the Arctic and packets of silt from the Thames estuary and plant specimens include samples of kava root, black gourd and seaweed.

Weapons and Ordnance

  • Edged Weapons: Around 500 swords including fighting swords, regulation weapons worn with dress uniform and presentation swords given to individuals in recognition of achievement. There are also a number of scabbards, carrying cases and sword knots. Alongside these swords, the collection comprises bayonets, boarding axes, cutlasses, dirks, pikes, daggers, dhas, hangers, scimitars, tachis, and wakizashis. With some exceptions, the edged weapons collection covers the period from the mid-eighteenth century to the mid-twentieth century.
  • Firearms: More than 400 firearms. The overwhelming majority date from the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries, most with direct or indirect naval and maritime associations. Includes pistols and revolvers, muskets and rifles and automatic weapons.
  • Ordnance: A disparate holding of more than 700 objects mostly dating from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It includes muzzle loading and breech loading weapons, alongside projectiles of various dates and types. Associated and ancillary object classes include gun sights, powder horns, shot carriers, cartridge holders, powder buckets, powder measures, flints, gun locks, gunners’ callipers, gun-sighting telescopes, shell grabs, fuses, and gunsmiths’ tools.

Photographs and Film

  • Historic Photographs: Approximately 282,000 negatives and transparencies, one million photographic prints and 1,700 albums. The negative collection covers many photographic processes from calotypes to glass, nitrate and acetate film, and polyester. The albums record merchant and Royal Navy careers from the late nineteenth century, company albums documenting shipbuilding, as well as private maritime holidays. The photographic print holdings include accessioned material, as well as items which were museum-generated or historically added as reference material. The photographic negatives collection contains material with no surviving provenance records.
  • Film Archive: 1,528 films (245 of which form part of RMG’s permanent collection). The first dates from 1910, others from the 1920s, an increasing number from the 1930s, and then more substantial batches from the 1940s through to the 1970s and 1980s. Most of the film holdings are on 16 mm film stock (though some are on 8 mm, 9.5 mm or 35 mm). Several hundred copies exist on VHS, Umatic, Beta or DigiBeta tapes.

Ship Plans and Technical Records

  • RMG holds large and significant ship plans and technical records collections. The collection can be split into two areas: the Admiralty Collections and the Merchant Collections. In 1958 the NMM was appointed a place of deposit for Admiralty records, including Specifications, Contracts and Covers and today holds an almost unbroken record of technical and historical development of warships from the late seventeenth century, through the transition from sail to steam, and onto the warships of the late 1960s. The merchant collection is formed from a variety of sources including builders, owners, collectors, designers and model-makers. The technical records consist of statistical and design data generated by the Department of Naval Constructors (DNC Workbooks, 1870s–1950s), correspondence regarding technical design information on warships (Ships Covers, 1870s–1960s), Machinery Information Books, Ships Books (post–1940), Contracts and Specifications (1750s–1940s).

Boats and Ship Models

  • Boats: 90 vessels plus 2,500 parts illustrating the design of, and various materials used in, small boat construction. A large proportion represents racing and leisure craft with examples dating from the 1900s to the 1990s, plus ceremonial vessels, coastal working boats and fishing craft from the UK and beyond. The majority of the collection is on loan to the National Maritime Museum, Cornwall.
  • Ship Models: Around 4,000 items, including contemporary and modern examples, which represents a range of vessels, from sailing and powered warships and merchantmen to small craft of all sorts. It includes models of ship fixtures and fittings, scenic models (dioramas and dockyards), ordnance and equipment. Areas of international significance include seventeenth- and eighteenth-century sailing navy models, French prisoner of war models, and nineteenth- and twentieth-century shipbuilders’ models.
  • World Cultures Models: 214 items, and 1190 parts representing hunting, fishing and cargo vessels used on oceans, coastal regions and rivers in Africa, Asia, Europe, North and South America and Polynesia. There are also examples of royal and ceremonial craft as well as armed vessels of war.

Oral History

  • An expanding collection, which currently comprises more than 40 interviews across 250 WAV files. Collecting efforts have focussed on the twentieth century Merchant Navy, shipwrecks, the Second World War, the Falklands Conflict, HMT Empire Windrush and the RNLI. Testimony has also been sought from LGBTQ+ seafarers who have served in the Merchant and Royal Navies. 500 open reel tapes on which around 200 interviews were recorded in the 1970s were recently digitised. Work is ongoing to review these recordings, trace the legal copyright holders and acquire the recordings into the permanent collection.

Caird Library and Archive

  • Archive and Manuscript Collections: Ranging broadly in date from 1322 to 2006, the collections are divided into the following groupings: administrative records of the Royal Navy (including dockyards) and merchant service; company and institutional archives; personal and family papers; artificial collections (assembled from different sources by individual collectors); volumes and documents acquired individually. Strongest in the eighteenth to mid-twentieth century, coverage includes all aspects of British maritime history including the Royal Navy, merchant shipping, science (medicine at sea, horology and navigation) and technology (engineering, shipbuilding, gunnery and ship administration). Particular strengths are Nelson-related manuscripts, naval officers‘ personal and family papers, and collections relating to exploration.
  • Printed Ephemera: Non-book printed material published for a short life-span for publicity or informational purposes or commemorating a service, event, person or object, for example brochures, calendars, greetings cards, invitations, itineraries, menus, programmes, tickets, and timetables. This collection of approximately 9,000 items covers a variety of subjects but is particularly strong in the area of merchant shipping companies, which comprise 75 – 80% of the collection. Most items in the collection were published after 1850, with the majority of items published in the twentieth century.
  • Rare Books: Approximately 12,000 books and journals published before 1850, covering the breadth of the Museum’s collections, including astronomy, horology, science, navigation, exploration, naval architecture and maritime history. Subject areas include naval biographies, shipwreck narratives, piracy, naval warfare and technical naval architecture. The collection has a strong focus on British voyages of the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

4. Themes and priorities for future collecting

As noted under ‘History of the collections’, the founding collections of the National Maritime Museum were intended to demonstrate British maritime endeavour and achievement, with a focus on technological progress and innovation. The collections thus embody this intention, as well as serving as evidence of the achievements of specific individuals: Horatio Nelson, James Cook, and Robert Falcon Scott, for example. These figures, their lives and experiences, remain important to contemporary audiences as do those of people overlooked in traditional historical accounts. Future collecting will proactively engage with a wider range of human experiences and seek to offer new perspectives on events and topics relevant to the RMG’s mission.

Overall principles for future collecting:

  • Human-centred: acquisitions provide new insights into human experiences relevant to RMG’s mission
  • Interdisciplinary: acquisitions are made on the basis of content/narrative, not form, and generate new connections and sightlines across RMG’s collections
  • Untold stories: acquisitions foreground experiences not represented in RMG’s existing collections and displays
  • Useful collections: acquisitions are a direct response to audience need and interest and are quickly put into use, through research, display, public programmes, etc.

Future collecting practices:

  • New collecting will be mirrored by ongoing research into the historical collections to continue to develop a fuller understanding of these
  • Oral history will play an important role in documenting the voices and perspectives of those underrepresented in traditional historical accounts
  • Human-centred collecting will require that relevant supplementary materials and documentation are acquired to support the fullest future use of collections
  • Contemporary collecting, including through commissioning and acquiring works by living artists, will provide a means for exploring RMG topics but also generates new questions around ethical practice, forms of payment and intellectual property rights, which need to be addressed
  • Similarly, digital materials are likely to form a significant element of collecting in this period but present specific infrastructural, technical and ethical challenges

RMG’s future collecting themes will be informed by the Guiding Concepts of RMG’s content strategy, Charting Our Course: Adversity, adaptability and habitability; Identity, diversity and community; Creativity, curiosity and ingenuity. Priority collecting areas for the period covered by this Collections Development Policy (2024-2028) are set out below. Collecting might take the form of objects, documents, images or testimony.

Ocean Environment

Understanding the Ocean

Attempts to research and conceptualise the ocean, from western/scientific (Oceanographic) as well as Native and Indigenous perspectives

Ocean Sustainability

Human responses to the challenges presented by climate change, e.g. rising seas, ocean economies, pollution, depleted fishing stocks and marine habitat protection

Ocean Navigation

Experiences of developing or using navigational tools and/or of changes in navigational technologies

Ocean Trade, Migration and Exploration

Seafaring and Maritime Labour

The history of seafaring and the conditions of work and life in British maritime industries and associated communities, and the wider impact of these

 

The breadth of experiences in maritime labour and activity (for example, those of merchant sailors, members of minoritised communities, disabled people and women)

Maritime Industry

The changing nature of British shipbuilding, ship ownership and operation and other maritime industries, and the experiences of people involved

Maritime Actions

The history of piracy, as well as of anti-piracy, humanitarian and diplomacy activities undertaken by maritime organisations, such as the Royal Navy, Royal Fleet Auxiliary, Merchant Navy and RNLI

Maritime Safety

Major incidents, including accidents, pollution spills, groundings and wrecks at sea, and efforts to improve maritime safety

Maritime Health

Experiences of health and illness (disease and injury) in maritime contexts

Polar Worlds

Experiences of polar exploration, both historic and contemporary, Arctic and Antarctic

 

Indigenous Arctic and other under-represented perspectives and experiences

Society

The global impact of British maritime endeavours

Including on the experiences of members of global communities (for example in Africa, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific)

Migration

The experiences of those who have migrated (or been forced to migrate), particularly in the post-war period and by maritime means

Maritime London

The connections between local maritime histories (for example, of Greenwich; Deptford; Lewisham and Woolwich) and national or global histories

 

Recent and contemporary London-based maritime experiences

Maritime Leisure

Recent and contemporary experiences of pleasure cruising

 

The changing nature of maritime leisure, e.g. yachting

Conflict

Experiences of maritime conflicts and of the use of modern (post-war) weaponry

Creativity

Portraits and artwork

Particularly works relating to identities under-represented in RMG’s holdings, for example women, disabled people and members of racialised communities

Queen’s House

The House as a site for creativity and arts patronage

 

Aspects of court culture

 

The historical presence and influence of women, especially female royals

Sailors’ Craftwork

The creativity of sailors or others engaged in maritime labour

Uniforms

How maritime-associated uniforms have changed over time (including in response to the needs of wearers) and how wearers have worn, adapted and maintained these

Universe

ROG people

The experiences and perceptions of people who have contributed to the life and work of the Observatory

The social history of Greenwich Mean Time

The role of GMT, including in the globalisation of everyday life, business and travel

The ROG as an icon

Local, national and international public perceptions of the ROG as a significant location, the home of GMT and the Prime Meridian

Astronomy

Subjects, themes, experiences or developments essential to the observation of space both from the planet and from space

5. Themes and priorities for rationalisation and disposal

5.1 The museum recognises that the principles on which priorities for rationalisation and disposal are determined will be through a formal review process that identifies which collections are included and excluded from the review. The outcome of review and any subsequent rationalisation will not reduce the quality or significance of the collection and will result in a more useable, well managed collection.

5.2 The procedures used will meet professional standards. The process will be documented, open and transparent. There will be clear communication with key stakeholders about the outcomes and the process.

5.3 The criteria to be used when identifying items for potential disposal are as follows:

  • Items which fall outside this Collections Development Policy, are not relevant to the Museum’s mission and whose public accessibility is best served elsewhere
  • Duplicate items (after consideration of an item’s provenance and research value as well as physical duplication)
  • Replica and prop items which should not have been accessioned
  • Items in poor condition which have as a result irredeemably lost their useful purpose for the Museum and which are beyond economical conservation
  • Items with no potential for display or research
  • Items which pose a health and safety risk, where disposal is required in order to comply with relevant legislation
  • Items where there is a moral or ethical argument for considering deaccession, where there is any suspicion that items were wrongfully taken during a time of conflict, stolen, illicitly exported or illicitly traded or where the museum is co-operating with attempts to establish the identity of the rightful owner(s) of an item.[9] The Museum will take such decisions on a case-by-case basis, within its legal position and in line with clauses 14.1 and 15.5.

5.4 Priorities for rationalisation and disposal during the period 2024-2027:

Cutty Sark Trust collection review

The collection of the Cutty Sark Trust, formerly an Accredited museum, was acquired by the Trustees of the National Maritime Museum in 2015. The collection comprised over 300 objects as well as archival, photographic and ship plan holdings. A process of formally reviewing the collection is ongoing and items to be retained are accessioned into RMG’s permanent collection. As the Cutty Sark Trust was itself an Accredited museum, items which are not required are deaccessioned in accordance with RMG’s disposal policy and procedure, except that they are not referred to Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport.

Archaeology collection review

Since the closure of the museum’s Archaeology Research Centre in 1986, the policy has been one of beneficial dispersal: that is, attempting to ensure that items from the collection are put to best use for display or research in other institutions in the UK which will provide maximum public access and most sympathetic interpretation. While there are still numerous small parts of archaeological archives which need to be transferred to their most appropriate home, the single most significant issue is finding a permanent home for the Graveney boat.

Ship Models collection review

The review of the ship models collection undertaken from 2004 to 2009 generated two groups of disposals which have been processed. A further 86 models were flagged as potential disposals pending further research and consultation and these will now be taken forward.

Tools and ship-related equipment

The previous Ship Equipment and Tools categories were discontinued in 2021 and replaced with a set of new categories which will provide a basis for reviewing these extensive collections in depth.

6. Legal and ethical framework for acquisition and disposal of items

6.1 The founding act of the National Maritime Museum, ‘The National Maritime Museum Act, 1934’ (‘the NMM 1934 Act’), sets out the legal powers of The Trustees of the National Maritime Museum (‘NMM’ or ‘the Museum’) with regard to acquisition and disposal.

The Museum is empowered to make disposals under the NMM 1934 Act, Section 2(3)b, 2(3)e and Section 6(2), and the Museums and Galleries Act 1992, subsection 6.

6.2 Recommendations for acquisition are made by the Collections Development Committee to the Museum Director, and where appropriate, to the Board of Trustees, depending on the financial value, sensitivity or significance of the potential acquisition. Disposals follow the same process with the difference that all are considered by the Executive Committee, the Trustees’ Collections and Research Committee and the Board of Trustees, and all disposals other than duplicates require consent from the designated government minister, currently the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, as defined in the NMM Act 1934.

6.3 The Museum acquires and disposes of material in accordance with the legal and ethical framework required to meet the professional standards identified within the ACE Museum Accreditation Scheme and the TNA Archive Service Accreditation Scheme. The Museum has designed procedures reflecting our commitment to ethical collecting and disposal.

6.4 The museum recognises its responsibility to work within the parameters of the Museum Association Code of Ethics when considering acquisition and disposal.

7. Collecting policies of other museums

7.1 The museum will take account of the collecting policies of other museums and other organisations collecting in the same or related areas or subject fields. It will consult with these organisations where conflicts of interest may arise or to define areas of specialism, in order to avoid unnecessary duplication and waste of resources.

7.2 Specific reference is made to the following museum(s)/organisation(s):

  • Historic Royal Palaces
  • Imperial War Museum
  • National Maritime Museum Cornwall
  • National Museum of the Royal Navy
  • National Museums Liverpool
  • National Portrait Gallery
  • Museum of London (and Museum of London Docklands)
  • Science Museum
  • Victoria and Albert Museum

8. Archival holdings

The Caird Library and Archive collection occupies over twelve kilometres of shelving, consisting of original documents and manuscripts, printed books, printed ephemera, and periodicals. Acquisitions into the archive, rare books and printed ephemera collections, which form part of the Museum’s permanent accessioned collection, are governed by this Collections Development Policy.

A ‘working collection’ of books printed from 1851 onwards, printed periodicals and electronic resources is also maintained and developed, managed by its own acquisitions policy and not part of the Museum’s permanent collection. The Caird Library Reading Room provides the primary point of public access to these collections, as well as to cartographic material and prints and drawings from RMG’s permanent collections.

As the Museum holds archives, including photographs and printed ephemera, it will be guided by the Code of Practice on Archives for Museums and Galleries in the United Kingdom (3rd ed., 2002).

9. Acquisition Policy

9.1 The Museum recognises its responsibility when making acquisitions to ensure that care of collections, documentation and use of collections will meet Museum and Archive Service Accreditation Standards. This includes using Spectrum primary procedures and the International Standards for Archival Description for Collections Management. It will take into account limitations on collecting imposed by such factors as staffing, storage and conservation.

9.2 Objects will be considered for acquisition by the Museum in any of the following ways: gift (including transfer from other public bodies), sale, bequest, acceptance in lieu, or private treaty sale.

9.3 Items will be acquired wherever possible without conditions; only under exceptional circumstances will items be accepted with conditions attached.

9.4 All efforts will be made to ensure intellectual property rights (or relevant permissions) are acquired along with the item. Where this is otherwise it will be made explicit and reflected in the documentation.

9.5 Objects will not be accepted into the Museum under this Collections Development Policy if they are to be non-collection (‘prop’) items or part of the Museum’s handling collection. These are managed through separate procedures.

9.6 The Museum will act in accordance with its Due Diligence Policy and make every effort not to acquire any object unless it is satisfied that it can acquire valid title.

9.7 The Museum will not acquire any object unless it is satisfied that the object has not been acquired in, or exported from, its country of origin (or any intermediate country in which it may have been legally owned) in violation of that country’s laws.

9.8 In accordance with the provisions of the UNESCO 1970 Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property, which the UK ratified with effect from 1 November 2002, the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 and the Dealing in Cultural Objects (Offences) Act 2003, the Museum will reject any items that have been illicitly traded. The Board of Trustees will be guided by the national guidance on the responsible acquisition of cultural property issued by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport in 2005.

9.9 The Museum may, by exception, acquire certain items falling within the above criteria providing:

  • an item lacking secure ownership history is unarguably of minor importance and, in the best judgement of experts in the field concerned, is unlikely to have been illicitly traded; or
  • the Museum is acting with the permission of authorities with the requisite jurisdiction in the country of origin; or
  • is in possession of reliable documentary evidence that the item was exported from its country of origin before 1970.

   In these cases the Museum will be open and transparent in the way it makes decisions and will act only with the express consent of an appropriate outside authority. The Museum will document when these exemptions occur.

9.10 Acquisitions outside the current policy will only be made in exceptional circumstances, and then only after proper consideration by the governing body of the Museum itself, having regard to the interests of other museums.

Acquisition decision-making process

9.11 Decisions on the acceptance of objects into the Permanent Collection will be taken on behalf of the Trustees of the National Maritime Museum by the Museum Director advised by the Collection Development Committee. Exceptions to this process will be for items of high value or particular sensitivity, in which case the Trustees will be directly involved.

  • For object(s) valued individually at under £100,000 the authority to acquire is delegated to the Museum Director as advised by recommendations from the Collections Development Committee.
  • For objects over £100,000 the decision to acquire is referred by the Museum Director to the Board of Trustees. In cases requiring a quick decision (for example an auction sale) the decision will be referred to the Chair of the Board and the Chair of the Trustees Collections and Research Committee.

9.12 The Museum will assess carefully objects to be acquired and will apply the same criteria whatever their size, content, value and the method of acquisition.

9.13 In addition to the ‘Themes and priorities for future collecting’ listed above (section 4), other factors are considered during the acquisition process:

  • Significance
  • Proposed use
  • Direct and Associated costs (transport, conservation work, storage)
  • Funds available
  • Condition
  • Ownership/provenance
  • Special conditions attached
  • Collecting polices of other institutions

10. Human remains

10.1 As the Museum holds or intends to acquire human remains from any period, it will follow the procedures in the Guidance for the Care of Human remains in Museums issued by DCMS in 2005.

11. Biological and geological material

11.1 So far as biological and geological material is concerned, the Museum will not acquire by any direct or indirect means any specimen that has been collected, sold or otherwise transferred in contravention of any national or international wildlife protection or natural history conservation law or treaty of the United Kingdom or any other country, except with the express consent of an appropriate outside authority.

12. Archaeological material

12.1 The museum will not acquire archaeological material (including excavated ceramics) in any case where the governing body or responsible officer has any suspicion that the circumstances of their recovery involved a failure to follow the appropriate legal procedures.

12.2 In England, Wales and Northern Ireland the procedures include reporting finds to the landowner or occupier of the land and to the proper authorities in the case of possible treasure (i.e. the Coroner for Treasure) as set out in the Treasure Act 1996 (as amended by the Coroners & Justice Act 2009).

12.3 The Museum will not acquire archaeological antiquities including underwater archaeology where the Board of Trustees has any suspicion that the circumstances of their recovery involved a failure to follow the appropriate legal procedures. In the case of underwater archaeology, the Museum will abide by the UNESCO 2001 Convention on the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage.

13. Spoliation

13.1 The museum will use ‘Spoliation of Works of Art during the Holocaust and World War II period: Statement of Principles and Proposed Actions’, issued by the National Museum Directors’ Conference in 1998, and report on them in accordance with the guidelines.

Holocaust (Return of Cultural Objects) Act 2009

14. The repatriation and restitution of objects and human remains

14.1 The museum’s governing body, acting on the advice of the museum’s professional staff, may take a decision to return human remains (unless covered by the ‘Guidance for the care of human remains in museums’ issued by DCMS in 2005), objects or specimens to a country or people of origin. The museum will take such decisions on a case-by-case basis; within its legal position and taking into account all ethical implications and available guidance. This will mean that the procedures described in 15.1-5 will be followed but the remaining procedures are not appropriate.

14.2 The disposal of human remains from museums in England, Northern Ireland and Wales will follow the procedures in ‘Guidance for the Care of Human Remains in Museums’, published by DCMS in 2005.

15. Disposal procedures

15.1 All disposals will be undertaken with reference to the Spectrum primary procedures on disposal and the museum’s written disposal procedure.

15.2 The governing body will confirm that it is legally free to dispose of an item. Agreements on disposal made with donors will also be taken into account.

15.3 When disposal of a museum object is being considered, the museum will establish if it was acquired with the aid of an external funding organisation. In such cases, any conditions attached to the original grant will be followed. This may include repayment of the original grant and a proportion of the proceeds if the item is disposed of by sale.

15.4 When disposal is motivated by curatorial reasons the procedures outlined below will be followed and the method of disposal may be by gift, sale, exchange or—as a last resort—destruction.

15.5 The decision to dispose of material from the collections will be taken by the governing body only after full consideration of the reasons for disposal. Other factors including public benefit, the implications for the museum’s collections and collections held by museums and other organisations collecting the same material or in related fields will be considered. Expert advice will be obtained and the views of stakeholders such as donors, researchers, local and source communities and others served by the museum will also be sought.

15.6 A decision to dispose of a specimen or object, whether by gift, exchange, sale or destruction (in the case of an item too badly damaged or deteriorated to be of any use for the purposes of the collections or for reasons of health and safety), will be the responsibility of the governing body of the museum acting on the advice of professional curatorial staff, and not of the curator or manager of the collection acting alone. Objects considered for disposal may be transferred to the Museum’s handling collection.

15.7 Once a decision to dispose of material in the collection has been taken, priority will be given to retaining it within the public domain. It may therefore be offered in the first instance, by gift or sale, directly to a museum, cultural heritage organisation or other body which will provide public access to the material and which is likely to be interested in its acquisition.

15.8 If the material is not acquired by any organisation to which it was directly offered then the museum and heritage community at large will be advised of the intention to dispose of the material, normally through a notice on the Museum Association’s Find an Object web listing service, an announcement in the Museums Association’s Museums Journal or in other specialist publications and websites (if appropriate).

15.9 The announcement relating to gift or sale will indicate the number and nature of specimens or objects involved, and the basis on which the material will be transferred to another institution. A period of at least two months will be allowed for an interest in acquiring the material to be expressed. At the end of this period, if no expressions of interest have been received, the museum may consider disposing of the material to other interested individuals and organisations giving priority to organisations in the public domain.

15.10 The Museum may consider disposal by sale in the following circumstances:

  • Where it has not been possible to identify an appropriate public domain recipient after following the Museum’s disposal procedure, and it is considered in the public interest to realise the market value of the object.
  • If an object being considered for disposal was purchased with capital funds from one of the Museum’s Trust Funds; the sale must be for fair market value (not exchanged) and paid for in cash and the proceeds used in manner complying with the objectives of the Trust.

Any proposal to dispose of an object by sale will be given full and careful consideration by the Board of Trustees and requires approval from the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport.

15.11 Any monies received by the museum governing body from the disposal of items will be applied solely and directly for the benefit of the collections. This normally means the purchase of further acquisitions. In exceptional cases, use of the monies for improvements relating to the care of collections to decrease the risk of damage to and deterioration of the collections may be justifiable. Any monies received in compensation for the damage, loss or destruction of items will be applied in the same way. Advice on those cases where the monies are intended to be used for the care of collections will be sought from the Arts Council England.

15.12 The proceeds of a sale will be allocated so it can be demonstrated that they are spent in a manner compatible with the requirements of the Accreditation standard. Money must be restricted to the long-term sustainability, use and development of the collection.

15.13 Full records will be kept of all decisions on disposals and the items involved and proper arrangements made for the preservation and/or transfer, as appropriate, of the documentation relating to the items concerned, including photographic records where practicable in accordance with Spectrum procedure on deaccession and disposal.

16. Disposal by exchange

16.1 The nature of disposal by exchange means that the museum will not necessarily be in a position to exchange the material with another Accredited museum. The governing body will therefore ensure that issues relating to accountability and impartiality are carefully considered to avoid undue influence on its decision-making process.

16.2 In cases where the governing body wishes for sound curatorial reasons to exchange material directly with Accredited or non-Accredited museums, with other organisations or with individuals, the procedures in paragraphs 15.1-5 will apply.

16.3 If the exchange is proposed to be made with a specific Accredited museum, other Accredited museums which collect in the same or related areas will be directly notified of the proposal and their comments will be requested.

16.4 If the exchange is proposed with a non-Accredited museum, with another type of organisation or with an individual, the museum will place a notice on the Museum Association’s Find an Object web listing service, or make an announcement in the Museums Association’s Museums Journal or in other specialist publications and websites (if appropriate).

16.5 Both the notification and announcement must provide information on the number and nature of the specimens or objects involved both in the museum’s collection and those intended to be acquired in exchange. A period of at least two months must be allowed for comments to be received. At the end of this period, the governing body must consider the comments before a final decision on the exchange is made.

Disposal by destruction

16.6 If it is not possible to dispose of an object through transfer or sale, the governing body may decide to destroy it.

16.7 It is acceptable to destroy material of low intrinsic significance (duplicate mass-produced articles or common specimens which lack significant provenance) where no alternative method of disposal can be found.

16.8 Destruction is also an acceptable method of disposal in cases where an object is in extremely poor condition, has high associated health and safety risks or is part of an approved destructive testing request identified in an organisation’s research policy.

16.9 Where necessary, specialist advice will be sought to establish the appropriate method of destruction. Health and safety risk assessments will be carried out by trained staff where required.

16.10 The destruction of objects should be witnessed by an appropriate member of the museum workforce. In circumstances where this is not possible, e.g. the destruction of controlled substances or certain hazardous materials, a police certificate or a certificate of disposal from a licensed hazardous waste contractor should be obtained and kept in the relevant object history file.

APPENDIX 1: COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE

The remit of the Collection Development Committee (CDC) is the development of the collections through acquisition, disposals and loans. All acquisitions, disposal and loan proposals are considered by CDC within the context of the current Collection Development Policy, which is reviewed every five years.

Recommendations regarding collections development are informed by all relevant stakeholder needs. CDC membership reflects this, consisting of a cross-section of specialist staff with interests and expertise in current acquisitions and the Museum’s collections. CDC is currently constituted as follows:

  • Head of Collections Services (chair)
  • Head of Curatorship & Research (deputy chair)
  • Head of Engagement (or a nominated deputy)
  • Senior Curator: World & Maritime History
  • Senior Curator: Art & Identity
  • Senior Curator: Royal Observatory Greenwich
  • Senior Curator: Content
  • Senior Curator: Maritime Technologies
  • Lloyd’s Register Foundation Senior Curator: Contemporary Maritime
  • Senior Manager, Collections Logistics
  • Secretaries for the Committee: Collections Registrar and Loans Registrar
  • A member of the Conservation team (co-opted)

Co-opted and presenting curators do not have voting rights as Committee members.

CDC meets monthly. The agenda is circulated at least one day in advance of the meeting. If a decision is required urgently, usually in the case of an auction, an Emergency Collection Development Committee (ECDC) meeting will be called; at minimum the presenting curator and either the chair or deputy chair of CDC must attend.

The minutes from the meeting are referred to the Museum Director for approval. The approved minutes will then be circulated to the relevant members of staff.

References

[1] https://collectionstrust.org.uk/accreditation/managing-collections/collections-information/spectrum-primary-procedures/

[2] https://www.ica.org/en/isadg-general-international-standard-archival-description-second-edition

[3] ‘The Society for Nautical Research: a brief chronicle of the first 19 years’, Mariner’s Mirror 16 (1930), pp.95–106, p.104.

[4] R. Dunn and M. Barford, ‘Scientific instrument collections in the creation of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich’, Journal of the History of Collections vol. 31 no. 3 (2019) pp.503–517, p.504.

[5] Geoffrey Callender to James Caird, 26 January 1934, NMM17: 32878.

[6] K. Littlewood and B. Butler, Of Ships and Stars: Maritime Heritage and the Founding of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, The Athlone Press and National Maritime Museum, 1998, p.172.

[7] Littlewood and Butler, ibid, p.183.

[8] Professor Sir Geoffrey Callender, Mariner’s Mirror, 1937, pp.256–7.

[9] Extract from Off the Shelf: A Toolkit for Ethical Transfer, Reuse and Disposal, Museums Association, 2023, p.18.