Located in Newport News, Virginia, The Library at The Mariners’ Museum is the largest maritime history collection in the Western Hemisphere. Visitors to the Library can gain access to primary and secondary source materials such as logbooks, diaries and account books on voyages and expeditions that occurred over the last two thousand years; passenger liners and immigrant ship information; slave trade histories and narratives; historic vessel plans and drawings; 1200 rare maps dating from 1600 to 1900; and archival material on the USS Monitor, CSS Virginia and Civil War navies.

The Library at The Mariners’ Museum contains over 1,750,000 items including:

• 78,000 books, journals
• 600,000 photographs and images
• 1,000,000 manuscript items
• 5,000 maps and charts
• 65,000 plans and drawings
• 400 ships’ logbooks
• 700 volumes of newspaper clippings

The website features information about the Library and links to the Library’s online catalog, the Elwin M. Eldredge Steamship database, and an interactive image gallery of Library Collection Highlights. Requests for Library services including research assistance and the reproduction of vessels plans can be made directly online. An overview of the collection is provided, covering the following topics:

• Chesapeake Bay
• Chris-Craft Boats
• Civil War Navies, USS Monitor, CSS Virginia
• Culture of the Sea
• Exploration, Voyages of Discovery & Travel
• Geography & Cartography
• Harbors & Ports
• Immigration & Slave Trade
• Inland Waterways & Canals
• Lighthouses & Lifesaving
• The Mariners’ Museum & Huntington Family
• Maritime Commerce, Merchant Marine & Work Boats
• Naval History & Naval Vessels
• Navigation & Seamanship
• Pirates & Piracy
• Recreation & Recreational Watercraft
• Sailing Vessels
• Shipbuilding, Ship Design & Ship Models
• Shipwrecks, Collisions, Salvage, & Underwater Archaeology
• Steamships & Passenger Liners

The Library at The Mariners’ Museum is open to the public Monday through Friday,10 a.m.-5 p.m.