Abstract :
The three papers that follow are the result of a scheme set up by the National Maritime
Museum (NMM) to encourage new research on its collections, and are presented
as examples of how museum collections can open up new areas of academic
research. They are also models of the kinds of work the NMM will further encourage
in the future.
As a significant location in the history of science, in particular through the Royal
Observatory, Greenwich, which forms a key part of the NMM complex, and as a
museum with rich holdings relating to the history of science, technology and medicine,
the NMM has long fostered successful research and publication in these areas. Yet
the museum does not necessarily feature high on researchers’ lists of key sources of
relevant and interesting material, despite housing a collection of nearly two and a half
million items, including internationally important holdings of astronomical, navigational,
horological and other scientific equipment, as well as cartographic material,
manuscripts, ship models and plans, and prints, drawings and paintings on a wide range
of subjects.
