National Maritime Museum Library/Archive, Greenwich


Today, I visited the National Maritime Museum Library/Archive, Greenwich.  We traveled by boat along the Thames River.  The library was beautiful and modern.  It is the largest maritime museum and they get 5,000 visitors per year.

The museum holds the Journal of Jeremy Roch which is one of the "Three Stuart Sea Journals", which shows the personal side of life at sea.  One of the most unusual items in the museum is the "The Chicken Sandwich letter"  which was written by John Ibbeston the the fourth Earl of Sandwich complaining that the food and writing things are mixed together.

One thing that was very impressive that the National Maritime Library/Archives does is that they have a section called "Treasures"  which has 51 items - highlighted item from each collection that the library/archives holds - these items are the best things from all the collections.

The library collection was funded by Sir James Caird who was Scottish (1864-1954) and was the library's funding benefactor.  Many of the collections in the National Maritime Museum Library/Archive were purchased with his funds. Very impressive!

Another place that was visited was the Greenwich Observatory.  This is where one can find the Prime Meridan that was established in 1852.  The neatest thing about this was that I actually got to stand on the Prime Meridan.  So very cool!!!!





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