SSHSA’s archives cover a vast array of maritime topics and history relating to the United States, and world shipping. They include:
- ship plans, line drawings and blueprints
- ephemera such as brochures (click here for an index)
- newspaper clippings, tickets, advertisements and posters
- film, video and audio recordings
- boat, yacht and ship logs (click here for an index – we will continue to add to this list as more are identified)
- objects, artifacts and fine art, including paintings in the Posner Virtual Museum
- images such as photographs, negatives, positives, glass slides and color projection slides.
For specific research questions, please contact our archivist Astrid Drew via email or by phone at 401-463-3570.
SSHSA’s Maritime Library
The library includes volumes about shipping lines, specific vessels of military and merchant classes, war, immigration and genealogy, as well as periodicals, reference materials on marine engineering, the merchant marine, and shipping registers.
Search or browse our library in our online catalog.
Please refer below for a list of the registers available in our library:
Lloyd’s Registers: 1764, 1774, 1790, 1800, 1812, 1820, 1844, 1848, 1851, 1853, 1861-63, 1873, 1878, 1882-1883, 1886-1888, 1893, 1897-1898, 1900-1901, 1907-1999.
Lloyd’s Register of American Yachts: 1914, 1922-1926, 1929-1942, 1947, 1950, 1955, 1957, 1959, 1962-1963, 1965-1969, 1976, 1977.
Record of American and Foreign Shipping: 1897, 1902, 1905, 1907, 1909-1910, 1913-1915, 1918-1967, 1971, 1974-1975, 1979-1981, 1986-1996.
Merchant Vessels of the United States: 1868-1870, 1875, 1881, 1883-1965, 1968-1979, 1981, 1989.
***Please note that not all of the collections in the archives are processed (or documented), and so certain requests for information or specific items may take time. Please state the urgency or any relevant deadlines upon requesting information or research time.***
Click here to request research or a photo search, or to request more information.