The National Maritime Museum (NMM) is engaged in a fundamental programme of reform of the stewardship of collections it holds in trust for the nation.

The Collections Reform Project is overseen by the Museum's Collections Informal Sub Committee of Trustees and is supported by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). It involves a series of linked initiatives that will change and improve the way in which the Museum looks after the items in its collections.

The inventory is being updated, increasing the Museum's knowledge of the collections, clarifying the relative significance of items and recording their condition. The Museum is updating records that originated with its foundation in 1934. In many cases, digital records are replacing manual record cards.

One Museum store has already been vacated and the funds ploughed back into the project. Another store will close in the next few years and the collections it holds currently will be re-housed, taking account of the significance and preservation requirement of each item. The capital raised from disposal of the existing store will be re-invested in the Reform Project.

Among the goals is a new archive in Greenwich to house selected items from the paper-based collections. This facility would enhance the Museum's capacity for supporting research and learning. The archive collections account for around half of the Museum’s entire holdings and contain treasures including the 'Lady Nelson letters', recently acquired at auction and documents relating to polar exploration during the 19th and 20th centuries by Shackleton and Franklin.

Meanwhile, galleries are being developed to place on public view a greater percentage of the core collections. New displays have already opened in 2004 on the Upper Deck of Neptune Court. These have transformed the appearance of the space at the heart of the Museum and retrieved more than 400 objects from reserve stores. Additional galleries are being provided for navigational instruments and timekeepers in the Royal Observatory, under the related 'Time and Space' project to develop the Observatory.

At the same time, the NMM continues to work with its partners in the maritime heritage community to identify ways of sharing resources across Britain. The UK Maritime Collections Strategy (UKMCS), founded in 1998, is a network of organisations with maritime collections across the country. The UKMCS has 11 lead museums, each of which take responsibility for leading on collecting and related matters in specific subject areas. The partners have built a tradition of working together and of managing collections as a 'distributed national collection’ rather than as resources of individual institutions. The aim is to share expertise and to disperse the collections to appropriate locations, where this is practicable.

The NMM collections are around half of this larger UKMCS maritime heritage resource. Items of greater relevance to the mission and subject areas of other museums and heritage organisations are being identified for dispersal from Greenwich. During the next three years the NMM will engage closely with its UKMCS and other partners to identify, where possible, new locations that would enhance public access.

The Museum is also seeking to disperse or dispose of duplicate items and those of relatively lower historical significance. The Museum plans to transfer or lend this material to other public organisations (starting with registered museums) and to develop its own handling collections, where relevant, for use in education sessions and public galleries.

In a small number of instances, once all opportunities to donate to other organisations have been exhausted, the Museum may consider sale of a small number of specific items at public auction, in accordance with Section 2 of the National Maritime Museum Act 1934.

Objects considered for dispersal and disposal will include only those that the Museum legally owns and that are among the collections held in its reserve stores.

Roy Clare, Director of the National Maritime Museum said:

The NMM Collections Reform Project is a responsible exercise at the cutting edge of museum practice. Our strategy respects an over-riding responsibility to maintain the collections for this and future generations. We see a driving requirement to develop access for the public, to encourage research and scholarship, to distinguish the very best of the collections, and to identify the core that must be retained for posterity.

At the same time, we aim to house the collections affordably and efficiently in the best way possible, placing them where local factors heighten their relevance and where the expertise is the strongest. Our process is rigorous and is in line with the latest professional guidelines. We are working closely with our government sponsors and with national, regional and, where relevant, international partners.

An example of reform in action is the disposal of the steam paddle tug Reliant, which had been removed from display in 1996. Early in the project, in 2001, the Museum established that such a large object could not be displayed intact and was too costly to preserve and store. The Museum retained some iconic items, including one of Reliant’s engines, which is on show as working exhibit. The remaining parts of the vessel were made available under the dispersal/disposal plans.

Various bodies were contacted, including other museums, the lead professional body (the Museums Association), the Maritime Curators Group and DCMS. Several institutions agreed to take parts of the tug, while her other engine is now located at Markham Grange Museum near Doncaster. The remaining sections were disposed of after the Museum had made all reasonable efforts to find them an alternative home within the maritime community. This action released just under 1000m² of storage space, saving more than £200,000 per year.

Another example is the proposed transfer of the Mattersey Thorpe logboat to Bassetlaw Museum. The museum, run by Bassetlaw District Council in Retford, will take possession of the boat in 2005, following conservation at the Mary Rose Trust. This Anglo-Saxon boat has been in water-storage, in a tank in the NMM stores, for 22 years and there are no plans to display it at Greenwich. The NMM is keen for this boat to be publicly accessible near the location in which it was discovered and originally used. Dispersal will benefit public access to this important artefact and the conservation and long-term care of the boat.

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Issued 30 November 2004 by the National Maritime Museum Press Office. For further information please call (020) 8312 6545/6732/6790 or e-mail press@rmg.co.uk

• See also NMM Collections Reform Project – Q&As
  

Notes to editors:

1. The role of The Collections Informal Sub-Committee (ISC) is to offer advice to the Trustees and the Museum on its collection strategy.

ISC members: Professor Martin Daunton, Trustee, NMM (Chairman); Victor Benjamin, Trustee, NMM; Professor Alan Bassindale, Open University; Roy Clare, Director, NMM; Margarette Lincoln, Director of Research & Collections, NMM; Janet Owen, Head of Curatorial Group, NMM; Angela Doane, Head of Collections Group, NMM; Julia Orchard, Project Manager, NMM.

2. The UKMCS was established in 1998 to encourage a co-ordinated approach to looking after and developing the maritime resource dispersed in museums, archives and libraries across the UK. Twenty-nine museums are now active members of the UKMCS, which is linked to the Maritime Curators’ Group that meets every six months.

Visit the UKMCS website.

Plans include co-operation among museums to share information and digital images of the nation’s maritime collection, further long and short-term loans and other partnerships between the UK maritime museums and the sharing of maritime expertise. Professional aspects of collections stewardship nationwide are an important aspect of its ongoing work. The UK maritime collection numbers some four million objects, over 50% of which are currently housed in the National Maritime Museum and its outstations.

The partner museums of the UKMCS include:

• Aberdeen Maritime Museum
• Bristol Industrial Museum
• Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust
• Fleet Air Arm Museum
• Great Yarmouth Maritime Museum
• Hastings Fishermen’s Museum
• Hull Maritime Museum
• Imperial War Museum
• International Sailing Craft Association
• Lancaster Maritime Museum
• Mary Rose Trust
• Merseyside Maritime Museum
• Museum of Lancashire (Fleetwood Museum)
• National Museums & Galleries of Wales
• National Maritime Museum
• National Maritime Museum Cornwall
• National Waterways Museum
• North East Lincolnshire Museums Service
• Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery
• Plymouth Naval Base Museum
• Royal Marines Museum
• Royal Naval Museum
• Royal Navy Submarine Museum
• Science Museum
• Scottish Fisheries Museum
• Scottish Maritime Museum
• Southampton Maritime Museum
• SS Great Britain
• Tyne and Wear Museums