Museum blog

Thanks to the work of librarians and curators at the Osher Map Library in Maine, USA, we now know a lot more about the range of women’s involvement in the map trade. Their work highlights the variety of roles women occupied, working as surveyors, compilers, engravers, publishers, and sellers. Looking at the chart trade in earlier nineteenth-century London similarly reveals women were involved in a number of ways, all integral to the provision of navigational information to seagoing vessels. Our Curator of Cartography, Megan Barford, reveals the vital role women played in aiding navigation at sea.

Maritime history has always influenced fashion - and no object more so than the Breton Top. But where did the history of the famous stripes begin?

Curator Kristian Martin looks at the notorious sex life of the famous diarist Samuel Pepys.

As part of LGBT History Month author and LGBT/gender historian, Jo Stanley, discusses queer history in the navy.

Curator of the Royal Observatory, Louise Devoy, looks at Samuel Pepys's links to our site here in Greenwich.

The Great Plague was one of the worst disasters in London's history. Samuel Pepys's diaries provide a fascinating insight into how Londoner's dealt with this tragedy.

Rum has long been a part of Britain's maritime heritage - but what is the real history of Nelson's Blood? Find out more about rum and the Navy below.