Archive & Library

Caird Library collection

The Caird Library is named after the Museum's principal founder and benefactor Sir James Caird (1864–1954). The Library collection includes over 100,000 books, 20,000 pamphlets, 20,000 bound periodicals including 200 current titles and 8000 rare books dating from 1474 to 1850.

You can search the Library collection via the library catalogue.

The Caird Library is staffed by a team of professional librarians and archivists who are available to help and advise readers at all times.

Manuscripts collection

The National Maritime Museum's collection of manuscripts is the largest and most important dedicated archive for the study of maritime history in the world. The collection occupies over four linear miles of shelf space and covers all aspects of British seafaring history from the 14th to the 20th centuries. Read more about the Manuscripts collection.

Use the archive catalogue to search more than 65,000 records from the Museum's archival and manuscripts collections. New records are regularly added and existing entries are frequently revised with new information.

Archive and library collections

The library collections contents range over every aspect of maritime history, including emigration, navigation, piracy, astronomy, shipping companies, shipwrecks, biographies, the two world wars, horology, merchant and Royal navy. We also have:

• special collections for researching family history, merchant shipping and warships
• a magnificent range of rare and printed materials, dating from 1430, including charts, maps and atlases
• a unique collection of shipping company ephemera
• a rare astronomy library, established by George Biddell Airy
• extensive periodical files, including Lloyd's List, Lloyds Register, Mariner's Mirror, Seabreezes, the Navy List and Mercantile Navy List.

Sources for researching ship histories

Sources which may be particularly useful for researching ship histories include:

• Lloyd’s Captains’ Register, 1851–1947 (microfilm): a register of masters and mates of merchant ships with their certificate numbers. Summary of service provided. The Caird Library holds office copies of Masters' Certificates (1845–1927).
• Lloyd’s Register: 1764–1833 lists all ships surveyed, 1834–38 all British ships over 50 tons, 1839–75 all ships surveyed, 1876 onwards lists all ocean going ships world wide over 100 tons. They provide an alphabetical listing by ship name, published annually, giving information such as master’s name, type of vessel, when and where built and name of owner.
• Mercantile Navy List 1857–1977: a list of all British registered merchant ships with their official number, plus a list of masters and mates with certificate number (1857–64 only).
• Lloyd’s Register of Yachts 1879–1980
• Lloyd’s List 1741 to date (1933 onwards on microfilm): reports shipping movements for ocean going vessels and casualties to shipping of all types. An annual index by ship is available on microfilm for the period 1838–1927.
• Merchant Navy cards regarding deaths at sea during World War II
• Commissioned Sea Officers of the Royal Navy 1660–1815: an alphabetical list of naval officers annotated with warships in which they served.
• Admiralty Movement Books 1939–45
• Jane’s Fighting Ships 1898 to date
• Navy Lists 1814 to date: provides details of stations of warships and contains seniority lists of officers. Regulations for rank, rate and pay rates are included.
• Warship histories (microfiche)