ID LocalTitleDescription BriefUpdated
VC000018

World War II posters

A collection of approximately 50 World War II posters including recruitment posters, security poster and War Bond posters. The posters were designed by the Office of War Information in Washington, D.C. and printed by the U.S. Government printing office.
Coverage: United States; 1941 - 1945		30 May 2012
VC000019

Weapons collection

The museum's collection of weapons, arms and armament numbers about 350.
Coverage: Sydney Heads, New South Wales, Australia; Australia; The Netherlands; 1700 - 1999		30 May 2012
VC000036

Volunteer Coastal Patrol collection

A collection of approximately 600 items relating to the work and membership of the Volunteer Coastal Patrol (VCP), the oldest voluntary sea rescue organisation in Australia. The material primarily dates from 1937 until the end of World War II. These were the most active years in the history of the VCP, subsequently renamed the Royal Volunteer Coastal Patrol in 1974.
Coverage: Sydney Harbour, New South Wales, Australia; New South Wales, Australia; Neutral Bay, New South Wales, Australia; 1937 - 1987		30 May 2012
VC000025

TU DO collection

A collection of approximately 100 items including the Vietnamese refugee boat TU DO, and personal effects donated by the Lu family, who escaped from Communist Vietnam to Australia on TU DO in 1977. The collection also includes photographs of the arrival of TU DO in Darwin on 21 November 1977 by photojournalist Michael Jensen, portraits of the Lu family in 2010 by ANMM photographer Andrew Frolows, and replica provisions such as clothing, bedding, crockery, toys and fittings purchased in Vietnam in 1998 with the help of TU DO's builder and navigator Tan Thanh Lu.
Coverage: United States; Malaysia; Vietnam; Australia; Brisbane, Australia; Darwin, Australia; 1975 - 2010		30 May 2012
VC000044

Torres Strait dance collection

This modest collection signifies that dance is one of the most important cultural expressions of the people of the Torres Strait. It forges and maintains links between the material and the spirit worlds and continues storytelling through the generations.
Coverage: Torres Straight; 1990 - 1999		30 May 2012
VC000039

The Saltwater Collection

The Saltwater Collection comprises 76 bark paintings by 47 Yolngu artists of north-eastern Arnhem Land, Northern Territory. The Collection details the ownership and histories of the Yolngu people and their saltwater country.
Coverage: Arnhem Land, Australia; 1998 - 1998		30 May 2012
VC000010

Swimwear collection

A collection of over 1,000 items including women's, men's and children's garments ranging from 1900s bathing dresses and accessories to 21st century performance and recreational swimwear. The collection includes homemade garments as well as swimwear designed and manufactured in Australia, Britain and the United States of America. The collection also covers swimwear designs, advertisements, patterns, swatch books, photographs, catalogues, prints and accessories such as bathing caps and sunglasses.
Coverage: 1890 - 2009		30 May 2012
VC000046

Souvenir and presentation pennant collection

Some 150 silk or felt pennants make up this collection and cover presentation pennants for championships, holiday souvenirs and mementoes from naval and commercial ships.
Coverage: Sydney Harbour, New South Wales, Australia; New South Wales, Australia; Fremantle, Western Australia; 1914 - 1979		30 May 2012
VC000029

SIEV and asylum seeker collection

A collection of approximately 200 items relating to three asylum seeker incidents in 2001: the MV TAMPA rescue, the 'children overboard' affair and the sinking of SIEV X (Suspected Illegal Entry Vessel Unknown). The collection includes a lifebuoy and lifejacket from MV TAMPA and photographs documenting the Royal Australian Navy's rescue of asylum seekers in the 'children overboard' affair. The collection also contains artwork, photographs, cartoons, correspondence, pamphlets and banners relating to the SIEV X National Memorial Project and Flotillas of Hope, a convoy of yachts that sailed from Australia in 2004 to deliver gifts to asylum seekers detained on Nauru.
Coverage: Afganestan; Iraq; Christmas Island, Australia; Nauru; 2001 - 2004		30 May 2012
VC000048

Shipping Industry records

A series of collections of archival records and objects from major shipping companies that operated from Australia during the 19th and 20th centuries. Major holdings include the McIlwaraith-McEacharn archives, and the Burns Philp and P&O collections. The material includes records of shipping businesses, reports, transactions, news clippings, promotional material, souvenirs, photographs, letters, ship logs, diaries, accounts and ledgers, as well as other mostly paper based material and ephemera relating to the daily business records of important national and international passenger and cargo operations.
Coverage: Australia; 1800 - 2010		30 May 2012
VC000014

Ship portraits

The ANMM ship portrait collection includes several hundreds of watercolours, oil paintings, and artworks of gouache, crayon, pencil and other mediums. It is representative of the work of Australian ship portraitists from the early nineteenth century to the early twenty-first century, with some European and North American portraits of vessels relevant to Australian history. Key strengths of the collection are works of several of the more prolific and accomplished ship portraitists such as Frederick Garling (1775 - 1848), G F Gregory (1815?-1887), Reginald Borstel (1875-1922), Haughton Forrest (1826 - 1925), and John Allcot (1888 - 1973).
Coverage: Australia; United Kingdom; United States; 1780 - 2010		30 May 2012
VC000033

Ship model collection

A collection of over 200 professionally or recreationally built ship and boat models crafted between 1800 and 2011. The collection includes builders models, ships in bottles, travel agent and shipping company models, votive and ceremonial models, pier head and sailor made models, panoramic and working models.
Coverage: 1800 - 2010		30 May 2012
VC000041

Ship menu collection

A collection of nearly 1,000 menus from passenger liners, cruise ships and naval vessels, spanning a century from the 1890s to the 1990s. The collection includes menus, menu cards, unused menus and souvenir items such as silk fan menus. Shipping lines represented include Aberdeen, Blue Funnel, Burns Philp, Canadian Pacific, Lloyd Triestino, Matson, Orient, P&O, Royal Mail, Royal Viking, Shaw Savill, Sitmar and Union. The collection also contains a small number of menus relating to Royal Australian Navy ships, primarily celebrating Christmas Day luncheons.
Coverage: Europe; United States; Canada; Great Britain; New Zealand; Australia; 1890 - 1999		30 May 2012
VC000031

Scrimshaw collection

The scrimshaw collection includes over a hundred carved or etched bone items such as thimbles, needle and pin cases, figurines, crochet hooks, pie crimpers, glove stretchers, cribbage boards, handles for various items such as umbrellas, flat panels with pictures, walking sticks, sailor's fids, pipes, watch stands, dice and drinking cups, powder horns, dominoes, button hooks, dice, toothbrushes, shoe horns, spatulas, a manicure set, and stockwhip handle. Scrimshaw is produced by engraving, carving, inlaying or assembling bone mainly from marine mammals. Walrus tusks, dolphin and pilot whale jaw bones and other animal bone were used, though sometimes ivory or shells. The most common form of scrimshaw and best represented in this collection are sperm whale teeth. Many are finely decorated with images of women, whaling scenes or other memories from home.
Coverage: United States; Australia; 1840 - 200		30 May 2012
VC000003

Samuel J Hood Studio photographic collection

Some 9,000 photographic images, including glass plates, prints and negatives - as well as some related ephemera - comprise the collection from the photographic studio of Samuel J Hood. The collection records an extensive range of maritime activity - mostly on Sydney Harbour - including sail and steam ships, warships, crew portraits, crews at work, ship interiors, stevedores loading and unloading cargo, port scenes, pleasure boats and harbourside social activities, from the 1890s through to the 1950s.
Coverage: Sydney Harbour, Australia; 1890 - 1959		30 May 2012
VC000021

Sailing Craft

The ANMM collection of historic sailing craft has seven vessels that cover different aspects of racing, recreational sailing and solo adventuring. The craft are wooden or fibreglass construction. Key vessels include the contrasting 18-foot skiffs BRITTANNIA (1919) and TAIPAN (1959), the wing-sailed C-Class catamaran MISS NYLEX (1974) and Kay Cottee's 1987/88 solo-circumnavigation yacht BLACKMORE'S FIRST LADY.
Coverage: Sydney Harbour, New South Wales; Port Phillip, Victoria; 1919 - 1988		30 May 2012
VC000023

Rowing Craft

The ANMM has a collection of eight historic rowing craft is built in a diverse range of materials - wood, corrugated iron and composite fibreglass construction. Amongst the key vessels are an Australian A&H Green built, cedar-planked single scull for 1930s champion sculler Bobby Pearce, the Oarsome Foursome's 1992 Olympic Gold Medal winning shell, two wooden double-ended surfboats and a corrugated iron, recreational fishing and flood boat from regional Australia.
Coverage: Barcelona, Spain; Bendigo, Victoria, Australia; 1930 - 1992		30 May 2012
VC000022

Power Craft

The ANMM collection of nine historic powercraft is a diverse group of largely wooden construction recreational and racing craft. Highlights include the world's fastest boat, jet-powered SPIRIT OF AUSTRALIA (1974), the 1913/14 EC Griffith Cup winning multi-stepped hydroplane NAUTILUS II, Hammondcraft clinker ski boat SKI-BYE (1954), 1930s Depression era speedboat MYSTERY and clinker built 'putt-putt' motor launch NEVER FAIL (1946), used for fishing and trips around Sydney Harbour NSW.
Coverage: Port Phillip, Victoria; Sydney Harbour, New South Wales; 1912 - 1961		30 May 2012
VC000026

Poncho and Bubbles collection

A collection of approximately 80 items relating to cruising clowns Harold Tanner and Marcelle Rose, who performed as Poncho and Bubbles on Pacific cruises from the 1970s until the 1990s. The collection includes clown suits, accessories and makeup worn by Poncho and Bubbles, toys and props used in their performances, and programs and photographs promoting their work on Sitmar and P&O cruise liners.
Coverage: New Zealand; Australia; Pacific Ocean; 1976 - 1995		30 May 2012
VC000032

Philately collection

This is a small collection of stamps and First Day Covers that primarily relate to maritime subjects. It is neither comprehensive nor complete.
Coverage: Montreal; Antactica; Coco-Keel; Munich; Atlanta; Coral Sea; Australia; Sydney, Australia; 1900 - 2001		30 May 2012
VC000050

Pearling industry collection

An extensive collection of material relating to the Australian pearling industry from the 1870s to the 1990s comprising objects such as hard hat diving suits and helmets, pearl culture tools and equipment, a model of the lugger COONAGLEBAR II, and the vessel in the Australian National Maritime Museum fleet the JOHN LOUIS - a 1957 pearling lugger. Other material includes photographs, oral histories, scrapbooks and official reports on the industry. The major part of the archival material is formed by the Denis George collection, which consists of an extensive record of George's involvement with the pearling industry in northern Australia and New Guinea from the 1940s to the 1990s, including letters, agreements, newspaper and magazine cuttings, photographs, postcards, lugger log books, government corrospondence, tourist brochures, industry reports and other mostly paper based ephemera.
Coverage: Australia; Papua New Guinea; 1872 - 1996		30 May 2012
VC000011

Oskar Speck collection

A collection of approximately 600 items relating to Oskar Speck's voyage to Australia by kayak 1932-1939, his internment in Australia during World War II and his life in Australia post war. The collection includes equipment used on the voyage, journals, letters, photographs, fittings from Speck's kayak, pennants and miniature flags, 16mm film of Speck's voyage, photographs, oral history interviews with Speck and others, newspaper clippings (German and English), magazines, passports, postcards, business cards and a model of his kayak made by a German internee at the Tatura Internment Camps in Victoria, Australia.
Coverage: Torres Straight; Mediterranian Sea; Danube River; South East Asia; Australia; India; Indonesia; New Guinea; Middle East; Germany; 1920 - 2002		30 May 2012
VC000005

Navigation instrument collection

A collection of instruments and equipment relating to maritime navigation spanning 386 years, ranging from sounding leads associated with the 17th century Dutch exploration of Australia to electronic calculators used by Kay Cottee during her 1988 circumnavigation of the world aboard the yacht BLACKMORES FIRST LADY.
Coverage: Oceania; United Kingdom; 1602 - 1988		30 May 2012
VC000009

Naval souvenirs and commemorative material collection

A collection of some 300 souvenirs and commemorative material with a naval theme ranging from medallions and badges through to commissioning booklets and decommissioning ports. The collection also includes objects made from timbers and brass of ships of the Royal Australian Navy.
Coverage: New South Wales, Australia; Australia; Cocos-Keel; 1860 - 2009		30 May 2012
VC000001

Naval dress collection

A collection of approximately 1,200 items relating to uniforms worn by men and women of the Australian naval forces, from about 1890 through to the 21st century. The collection includes both winter and summer examples and covers the range of ranks from junior and senior sailors to Admirals.
Coverage: Victoria, Australia; Queensland, Australia; Australia; New South Wales, Australia; England, United Kingdom; 1890 - 2010		30 May 2012
VC000016

Model Skiffs

A collection of approximately six wooden model skiff hulls and their associated items including keels, rudders and sailing rigs, as well as images, trophies, pennants and programs. The popular classes were 12 inches (300mm) and 2 feet (600mm) long. Principal craft include THELMA, VE and ROSE. The models from the 1920s to 1940s are carved from wooden blocks or planked around moulds, with brass fittings, lead ballast on a metal fin keel, wooden spars and cotton sails.
Coverage: Sydney, New South Wales, Australia; 1919 - 1942		30 May 2012
VC000037

Missions and missionary collection

A collection of approximately 200 items including paintings, lithographs, photographs, books, pamphlets, hymnals, medallions, ships plans and models relating to missionary activity in the Indian and Pacific Oceans from the arrival of the London Missionary Society in the late 1790s through to the mid-1950s.
Coverage: Melanesia; Pacific Ocean; Fiji; Polynesia; Tonga; United States; Great Britain; Taiti; Australia; 1974 - 1960		30 May 2012
VC000049

McKilliam family collection

The collection includes material from several McKilliam family members, but the majority of the collection relates to Captain Robert Basil Vincent McKilliam's working life as an apprentice, a mate, and then captain - much of which was with the Aberdeen White Star line.
Coverage: Australia; 1876 - 1938		30 May 2012
VC000034

Maritime unions collection

The collection comprises of thousands of objects and archives from the 1870s to 2010 relating to Australian maritime trade unions. It includes photographs, certificates, banners, paintings and drawings of maritime workers and union officials - some produced by unionists, pamphlets, news clippings, trade union literature including newspapers, union badges and buttons, official trade union correspondence, records of legal action, personal letters, strike picket banners leaflets and posters, with a significant amount of ephemera produced during the 1990s waterfront conflicts.
Coverage: Australia; 1870 - 2010		30 May 2012
VC000047

Lena Gustin (Mamma Lena) collection

A collection of approximately 50 items relating to the migration and career of Italian radio broadcaster Lena Gustin (Mamma Lena). The collection includes immigration papers, employment contracts, correspondence, passports, ship passenger tickets, passenger lists, certificates, entertainment programs, newspaper clippings, books, compact discs of Mamma Lena's radio broadcasts and radio program transcripts. The material dates from the 1950s to 2000s.
Coverage: Australia; Italy; Sydney, New South Wales, Australia; 1950 - 2009		30 May 2012
VC000027

KAYUEN collection

A collection of approximately 70 items removed from the crew cabins, galley and bridge of KAYUEN, which carried 69 illegal immigrants from China to Australia in May 1999. KAYUEN was intercepted by HMAS FREMANTLE off Jervis Bay, NSW, following a three-week joint surveillance operation by the Australian Customs Service, Australian Federal Police, NSW Police, Coastwatch, Royal Australian Navy and Royal Australian Air Force. The collection includes clothing, bedding, crockery, books, games, compact discs, tools, medicines, bottles and safety equipment from the Panama-registered coastal freighter.
Coverage: China; New South Wales, Australia; Western Australia; 1990 - 1999		30 May 2012
VC000024

Kayaks, canoes and surfskis

The ANMM has just over 10 examples of kayaks, canoes and surf skis, ranging from 2007/2008 trans-Tasman expedition boats LOT 41 and Andrew McAuley's solo sea kayak, a 1930s Depression era home-made canvas canoe, and a range of 1950s wooden chine hulled surf skis and accessories.
Coverage: Sydney Harbour, New South Wales, Australia; Tasman Sea		30 May 2012
VC000017

Indigenous watercraft

The ANMM collection of Indigenous water craft is a group of six commissioned craft from the 1980s and early 1990s, and related accessories such as paddles and rigs. The diverse collection includes a Bardi raft from north west Australia, a sewn bark canoe from Arnhem land, a sewn bark canoe and dugout canoe from Borroloola NT, a Mornington Island raft and a sheet bark canoe from the Murray River system. They are made from bark or tree trunks and limbs, with vines and other natural fibre bindings.
Coverage: Murray River; Arnhem Land; Borroloola; King Sound; Gulf of Carpentaria; 1980 - 1990		30 May 2012
VC000042

Indigenous fibreworks collection

Several hundred objects make up this collection highlighting distinct regional characteristics such as design, colour of dyes and the fibres used. These works signify ancestral events and actions reinforcing connections to land and sea.
Coverage: Maningrida, Northern Territory, Australia; Northern Territory, Australia; Tasmania, Australia; New South Wales, Australia; Elcho Island, Northern Territory, Australia; 1980 - 2009		30 May 2012
VC000043

Immigrant guide collection

A collection of approximatly 100 published books, journals and newspapers that provide advice and suggestions to immigrants or people intending to be immigrants to the Australian colonies in the 19th century.
Coverage: Scotland; Wales, UK; Ireland; UK; Great Britain; Australia; 1800 - 1900		30 May 2012
VC000020

Health at sea

A collection of 176 objects, the Health at sea collection contains medical guides, ships medical chests, medical equipment, bills of health, logbooks detailing treatments for mariners, images of hospital ships. The collection also includes inventories of medical equipment carried aboard Kay Cottee's yacht BLACKMORES FIRST LADY during her 1988 circumnavigation.
Coverage: Australia; 1706 - 2008		30 May 2012
VC000012

French exploration

A collection of voyage accounts, charts and images relating to French exploration of the Asia Pacific region mainly in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Coverage: Pacific Ocean; Asia; Australia; France; 1677 - 1846		30 May 2012
VC000015

Fleet Operational Vessels Collection

A collection of seven operational vessels from the National Maritime Collection representing different vessel types from 1888 through to 1975. They include the racing yacht AKARANA, cruising yacht KATHLEEN GILLETT, couta boat THISTLE, pearling lugger JOHN LOUIS, 1970s refugee boat TU DO, lightship CLS2 CARPENTARIA and naval patrol boat HMAS ADVANCE. The collection covers both wooden and metal construction.
Coverage: Australia; 1888 - 1975		30 May 2012
VC000035

First Fleet and Convict Collection

A collection of approximately 200 items relating to the First Fleet and the European occupation of Australia in 1788, the convict transportation system between 1787 and 1868 and the aftermath of the system. The collection consists of Acts of Parliament, convict transport log books, surgeons accounts, religious tracts, hulk reports, broadsheets, convict love tokens, illustrations, engravings, convict transportation documents, indents, Conditional Pardons and Certificates of Freedom.
Coverage: News South Wales, Australia; Australia; Great Britain; Western Australia; Tasmania, Australia; 1785 - 1900		30 May 2012
VC000030

DUNBAR Historic Shipwreck Collection

A collection of approximately 5,000 artefacts recovered from the site of the historic shipwreck the DUNBAR off Dunbar Head at South Head by a recreational diver in the 1960s. The collection includes coin, jewellery, ship's fittings, furniture components, clothing accessories such as buckles and buttons and components of the ship's general cargo. Along with a group of associated material such as newspaper clippings, eye witness accounts and memorabilia associated with the event.
Coverage: Sydney, New South Wales, Australia; United Kingdom; 1857 - 1857		30 May 2012
VC000008

China Trade collection

A collection of approximately 200 object of Chinese export wares dating from 1799 through the 1930s. There are two major dinner services of Chinese export porcelain which relate to the American mariner Richard Dale dated 1799 and American entrepenuer George Francis Train dated about 1856. In addition there are examples of pewterware, silverware, tea containers, maps of Chinese harbours and prints of Chinese landmarks.
Coverage: China; United States; Hong Kong; 1799 - 1930		30 May 2012
VC000006

Chart collection

A collection of 72 charts and atlases mainly relating to the Asia-Pacific region illustrating the changing state of geographical knowledge of the region over 200 years from the late 16th century. The collection includes examples of James Cook's surveys of Newfoundland prior to the ENDEAVOUR voyage as well as works relating to explorers such as La Perouse, D'Entrecasteaux, Freycinet and Flinders
Coverage: Australia; Asia; Pacific; World; Newfoundland; 1590 - 1885		30 May 2012
VC000013

British exploration collection

A collection of over 500 objects relating to exploration of the Asia Pacific region by British explorers in the period 1688 to 1852. The collection includes the voyage accounts of Dampier, Anson, Byron, Wallis, Carteret, Cook, Vancouver, Flinders, King, Stokes and Stanley as well as ship models, portraits, charts and engravings. Also included are archaeological relics recovered from Endeavour Reef where Cook's ENDEAVOUR was stranded in June 1770.
Coverage: Pacific Ocean; Asia; Australia; 1688 - 1852		30 May 2012
VC000028

British child migrant collection

A collection of approximately 70 items relating to child migrants who were sent from Britain to Australia through government-sponsored schemes in the 20th century. The collection includes clothing, accessories, luggage, shipping memorabilia, photographs, cameras, letters, documents, books, magazines, crockery and farm tools, from the UK and from the Australian farm training schools and institutions to which children were taken.
Coverage: Canada, United Kingdon, New Zealand, New South Wales, Australia; Western Australia; 1923 - 1961		30 May 2012
VC000002

Beatrice Kerr collection

A collection of approximately 700 personal items, posters, books, newspaper clippings, handbills, letters, photographs and swimming carnival programs relating to the career of champion Australian swimmer, diver and vaudeville entertainer Beatrice Maude Kerr in Australia and England.
Coverage: Melbourne, Australia; Adelaide, Australia; Sydney, Australia; London, United Kingdon; England, United Kingdom; 1880 - 1919		30 May 2012
VC000007

Australian Netherlands Committee on Old Dutch Shipwrecks (ANCODS) collection

The ANCODS collection bears witness to the mutual cultural heritage of the Netherlands and Australia dating back to 1606 when Willem Janszoon in command of the Dutch ship DUYFKEN became the first European to make contact with Australia and its Indigenous people. By the middle of the 18th century Dutch navigators had charted two-thirds of the Australian coast and for over 200 years Australia was known as New Holland.
Coverage: Indian Ocean; Western Australia; Indonesia; Netherlands; 1629 - 1727		30 May 2012
VC000040

Australian Indigenous burial rituals

The Museum has commissioned burial poles, log coffins, bark paintings and associated accessories from the Tiwi Islands, and the Yolngu of north-eastern Arnhem Land, Northern Territory to represent various funerary rites of these maritime people.
Coverage: Bathurst Island, Northern Territory, Australia; Melville Island, Northern Territory, Australia; Arnhem Land, Australia; 1990 - 1999		30 May 2012
VC000004

Admiral Pâris Collection

An unbound 288-page folio documenting the construction and use of indigenous watercraft in Asia, the Pacific and the Americas in the 19th century by Edmond-Francois Pâris. Text in French with 132 lithograph plates and line drawings. 'Essai sur la Construction Navale des Peuples Extra-Europeen ou Collection des Navires et Pirogues Construits par les Habitants de l'Asie, de la Malaisie, du Grand Ocean et de l'Amerique'. Published by the Ministère de la Marine.
Coverage: Oceania; Asia; South America; Central America; North America; 1826 - 1843		30 May 2012
VC000045

19th century songs and music collection

A collection of approximately 150 song and musical broadsheets associated with immigration to Australia, convict transportation and sea travel in the 19th century.
Coverage: Scotland, UK; Wales, UK; Ireland; United Kingdom; Great Britain; Australia; 1800 - 1900		30 May 2012
VC000038

19th century immigrant journal collection

A collection of approximately 100 published and unpublished diaries, journals, testimonials, letters and accounts of sea voyages from Europe to Australia between 1788 and 1900.
Coverage: United Kingdom; Australia; 1788 - 1900		30 May 2012