Royal Museums Greenwich

John Graves

Profile

Curator of Ship History

John GravesI am the Museum’s specialist in the careers and histories of ships and shipping, especially British merchant shipping from the steam age to the present day.

The most rewarding part of my job

I love working with the Museum’s wonderful ship model collection.

The questions I get asked most often

I'm most often asked about HMS Victory and about RMS Titanic.

For information about HMS Victory, I recommend HMS Victory: Building, Restoration and Repair by Arthur Buglar, published by HMSO, London 1966, and also www.hms-victory.com.

For information about HMS Titanic, I recommend The Olympic-Class Ships: Olympic, Titanic, Britannic by Mark Chirnside, published by the History Press Ltd, London 2004, and also www.encyclopedia-titanica.org.

Recommended sources of information

  • Lloyd’s Register of Shipping. The world’s first and largest ship-classification index, begun in 1760
  • Ship by Brian Lavery, published by Dorling & Kindersley, London 2004
  • Conway’s All the World’s Fighting Ships, published by Conway Maritime Press
  • The Arming and Fitting of English Ships of War by Brian Lavery, published by Conway Maritime Press, London 1987

Academic Profile

Curator of Ship History

Biography

  • Harrow School of Art 1977–81
  • National Maritime Museum 1987–
  • Secondment to Australian National Maritime Museum 2003

Collections responsible for

  • Ship models

Areas of research and interest

  • Passenger ships and shipping companies from the mid-19th century
  • Ocean liners and cruise ships
  • Maritime decorative arts and material culture
  • Ship models and the history of the National Maritime Museum’s collection
  • King George III’s model collection

Current NMM projects

  • Supervision of AHRC-funded Doctoral fellowship whose PhD thesis is entitled Accommodating the Passenger: interior design for the Union-Castle Line Ships 1945–1977
  • Collections Online, making available online the Museum’s unrivalled collection of ship models
  • Permanent galleries at the Ship Model Centre, National Museums at Chatham, opening mid-2010
  • Collection reform project, evaluating importance of ship model collection 2006–  

Previous NMM projects

  • Ship model collection cataloguing project (1987–1991)
  • Ship of War gallery (1989)
  • Ship models loans-in and disposal reviews (1991–93)
  • Nelson gallery (1993–95)
  • Blood, Sea and Ice exhibition (1996)
  • Off the Stocks exhibition (1996)
  • Neptune Court redevelopment (1996–99)
  • Passengers gallery (1997–99)
  • Redevelopment of Wolfson Gallery of Trade and Empire (1999–2000)
  • Redevelopment of Maritime London gallery (2001)
  • Mechanical and interactive displays, and audio-visual presentations at National Maritime Museum Cornwall (2001–02)
  • Secondment to Australian National Maritime Museum (2003)
  • Secretary to Official Nelson Commemorations Committee (2003–06)

Select Publications

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