On display
Atlantic Worlds gallery
Online | Visitor info | Themes | Exploration | Trade | Enslavement & resistance | War | Schools | Further info & sponsors
Please note: This gallery will be part-closed 29 October–22 November, as part of our exciting new capital project, the Sammy Ofer Wing.
Due to essential maintenance work the Atlantic Worlds gallery will also be temporarily closed 30 November–4 December 2009.
Exhibition dates: Permanent
Location: Level 1, National Maritime Museum
Admission: Free
Atlantic Worlds is now open.
Atlantic Worlds is a new permanent gallery in the National Maritime Museum. The gallery explores the interrelationship, connections and exchanges created between Britain, Africa and the Americas between 1600 and 1850 and looks at the impact of empire on three continents.
Online gallery
View all objects from the gallery, browse by theme and hear John Agard's caption poems read by the poet.
Visitor information
Atlantic Worlds is open 10.00–17.00 daily. Last admission is 30 minutes before closing. See Times & admission
The gallery is on level 1 of the Museum - see floor plans (PDF, 1.5MB)
Gallery themes
The gallery presents four main themes:
These themes reveal how geographical exploration and the navigation of the Atlantic opened up new trade routes from the early 17th century onwards and brought Europeans into contact with different cultures, setting in motion a dynamic of conquest and exploitation, as well as trading and cultural exchanges.
Exploration and cultural encounters
Atlantic Worlds examines the motivations and ambitions of Europeans, often making long perilous Atlantic crossings to reach the New World and places previously only reached by long overland trade routes. The gallery also explores the encounters and exchanges made by travellers upon reaching North America and West Africa.
Paintings, prints and drawings, decorative arts and ethnographic artefacts are amongst the 220 objects from the Museum’s extensive collections showcased in the new gallery. These include:
- a 16th-century Spanish astrolabe, discovered on the island of Valentia, in Co. Kerry, Ireland in 1845
- gold weights, fashioned in the form of muskets, used for weighing gold dust by the Akan people of Southern Ghana during the 18th and 19th centuries
- a North American shot pouch, made from moose and caribou skin, with porcupine quillwork embroidery and woven panels of triangles and rectangles – reflecting Métis, Cree and Chippewyan influences.
Trade and commerce
The Atlantic voyages of Europeans connected them with parts of the world previously only reached by lengthy overland trade routes. They also reached areas that had no previous extensive contact with Europe. These diverse territories began to be linked in an ‘Atlantic world’.
Transport by sea was the essential characteristic of this world. The prevailing ocean winds and currents dictated the direction in which sailing ships could travel. Also they determined the nature of maritime trade and social interaction.
By the late 17th century, England had established colonies in North America and the Caribbean, with over 350,000 people having emigrated from England by 1700. These new colonies exported produce including sugar and tobacco and imported finished goods in return, such as woollen cloth. The gallery reveals how the triangular trade began supplying these colonies with enslaved Africans to work on tobacco, rice and sugar plantations.
Enslavement and resistance
The opening of Atlantic Worlds coincides with the bicentenary of the Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade which was signed into law by King George III on 25 March 1807. The gallery displays new material relating to the transatlantic slave trade including a rare and detailed daily logbook from the slave schooner Juverna, written by Master Robert Lewis, which records the vessel’s maiden voyage between Liverpool, West Africa and Surinam during 1804-05 and includes general observations on a classic Triangular Trade slaving expedition from England.
As the demand for cheap labour on plantations in the Americas grew, enslaved Africans became the most valuable commodity for European traders. By the 1730s, Britain had become the largest slave trading country in the world. It is estimated that 12 million Afritheme can people were enslaved in the course of the transatlantic slave trade, 3.4 million of them in ships of the British Empire.
Atlantic Worlds recounts the stories of some of the people involved in the resistance movement and the campaign for the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade – including Toussaint l’Ouverture, Olaudah Equiano and Samuel Sharp whose acts of resistance and rebellion were crucial to the turning of European public opinion against the trade.
War and conflict
Britain’s struggle to secure the future of its North American and Caribbean colonies and safeguard the associated commerce culminated in frequent conflicts and resistance. The final part of the gallery explores important events such as the Seven Years’ War (1756-63), which was fought between Britain and France and ended with the Treaty of Paris. It examines the role played by Native Americans as allies in the war, and demonstrates the significance of the conflict to British identity. At the end of this period of warfare, Britain had gained control over virtually the entire North American continent and made significant acquisitions in the Caribbean.
Schools and teachers
Schools' sessions:
- Transatlantic Slavery Study Day (History, KS3)
- Slavery: London and beyond (History, KS3)
- Transatlantic slavery: a Shared History (Citizenship, KS3 & KS4)
Continuing professional development:
Histories and Legacies of Transatlantic Slavery (History, Citizenship, Professional Development)
Print and online resources:
Further information
The caption poems in the gallery have been written specially for the Museum by John Agard, who has recently completed a spell as the Museum's poet-in-residence.
Atlantic Worlds replaces the Museum’s former Trade and Empire gallery and is planned as one of a pair of complementary galleries. The partner gallery will examine the world of the Indian Ocean and will replace the current Art and the Sea gallery. The development of this gallery will begin after the completion and opening of Atlantic Worlds and is due to open in 2009.
Gallery sponsors
The new gallery has been funded through the generosity of the DCMS / Wolfson Foundation Museums and Galleries Improvement Fund, Stavros Niarchos Foundation (in memory of Mary A. Dracopoulou), CHK Charities Limited, Dr Lee MacCormick-Edwards, the Kirby Laing Foundation and the Worshipful Company of Shipwrights.
