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Swim with the dolphins at the Maritime Museum

Museum history and range of work
At the instigation of a committee of the Bermuda National Trust, the Museum was established in 1974, opening to the public the following spring. Queen Elizabeth II gave the fledgling institution a stamp of approval on her visit to Bermuda in late 1974 and the Earl of Mountbatten opened the Museum in 1975. An Act of Parliament in 1978 officially set the seal on the creation of the Museum and its long-term tenure of the Keep of the Dockyard, possibly one of the finest sites in the world for such an institution. Constituted as a charity, the Board of Trustees hired the first professional staff in 1980, prior to and after which volunteers carried out much good work. The advent of major capital fundraising in 1987 advanced the Museum in many ways and the completion of the structural restoration of Commissioner’s House in 2000 marked another major development.

With public support and the hard work of volunteers and staff the Museum has grown to become the largest in Bermuda and has provided a valued destination for more than a million visitors.

Since its inception, the Museum has conducted archaeological research on terrain and underwater sites around Bermuda. Field school students from various associated universities, interns, and volunteers provide the bulk of labour for these projects and in return receive valuable training and experience.

Bermuda Maritime Museum’s collections are the largest and most wide-ranging on the island, exceeding 30,000 objects that span the 16th–21st Centuries. The Museum’s fascinating collections are acquired through gifts, purchases, and archaeology and include photographs, documents, plans, paintings, manuscripts and books, oral testimonies, archaeological specimens, boats, ship models, and a wide range of maritime artifacts.

Conservation is a key component of the Museum’s long-term commitment to the preservation of Bermuda’s material culture. A conservator and a team of interns and volunteers use the Museum’s purpose-built laboratory to conserve and restore a variety of artifacts in our collections.

Combined scholarly research, including historical, archaeological and curatorial study, is the backbone of the Museum’s exhibitions, publications, and extensive information corpus.

Exhibits on a wide range of maritime and historical subjects relating to Bermuda are housed in eight historic buildings within the Keep. The Museum’s exhibitions aim to concisely present a combination of scholarly research, archaeology, visual media, artifacts and material culture on a given subject.

Since the mid-1980s, the Museum has published a number of books, a major magazine, MARITimes, and an annual academic journal, The Bermuda Journal of Archaeology and Maritime History.

The Museum extends its efforts beyond the physical confines of the Keep by carrying out archaeological and preservation projects throughout the Island. The Museum was instrumental in the designation of St. George’s and its associated fortifications as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in late 2000, as well as in the passage of the Historic Wrecks Act 2001 for the protection of underwater heritage. The Museum’s trustees, staff, and volunteers have been a major advocate of preservation of many facets of local heritage for many years.