National Maritime Museum Library

         The National Maritime Museum contains over 2 million items, its collections are relevant to Britain's  history of exploration, navigation, and conquest of the sea. The museum was founded in 1934, and is located within the Greenwich Royal Park in London. Our group visited the museum to tour the library and archives as one of our last class trips for the British Studies Program. 

         The museum's library and archives were located in the museum on the second floor. Everything was new and upgraded since they recently went through a move to their new space. The library was split of into two sections, that was divided by a glass wall. On one side was the staff desks and area for group discussion and meetings, while the other side (where we sat at) was for independent research and sometimes used for meetings. In the library the shelving was kept at a minimum, short shelves lined under the windowsills, and there was an additional row next to it. Most of their items were stored either in the basement or off site, and they would retrieve them as needed.   

          For this visit we did not receive a tour of the facility, instead the librarian and archivists had a presentation set up which included a slide show and items laid out on the table. I really enjoyed viewing the items on display and learning about their history. For instance, an item that I really enjoyed looking at was the Cosmographia from 1482. This item is a book that describes the world, its basically an atlas and it contains beautifully drawn illustrations of maps. The one that I looked at was written by Claudius Ptolemy a famous mathematician, astronomer, and geographer. He lived under the Roman Empire in Alexandria. The atlas is a medieval edition of his work, and contains beautiful illustrations!

This picture shows the display they had set u p for us, in the background you can see the Cosmographia. 

        Overall my visit to the National Maritime Museum was very pleasant. I would recommend it for anyone who is interested in researching history related to the British maritime. 

Source:
https://www.rmg.co.uk/national-maritime-museum