A Partnership in Progress

A partnership with the public has been at the heart of the growth of the Museum over the past 30 years. This has seen the donation of major collections – most notably the McCarthy Collection of Nelson memorabilia, which led to the founding of the Museum in its current guise in 1972 – as well as very generous support for fundraising initiatives in recent years.

First and foremost amongst the latter was the campaign to raise £5.3 million (including a Heritage Lottery Fund grant of £2.8 million) to fund Phase I of the Museum’s capital Development Plan, which successfully created the new storage and staff facilities on the upper floors of Storehouse No 11 and the new exhibitions on Nelson, the Sailing Navy, Victory and Trafalgar. Donations were received from grant-making trusts, companies and individuals.

Other recent projects for which funding has been given include:

* The Sea Your History Project: a £664,000 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, plus funding from BAE Systems and Lockheed Martin, supported a 3-year project (2006-08) to create a website dedicated to the 20th Century Navy (www.seayourhistory.org.uk) together with a new exhibition and schools activities.

* Special exhibitions and associated activities in 2007 to mark the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the Transatlantic Slave Trade and the 25th anniversary of the Falklands War.  A list of sponsors is given here.

* 'Face-to-Face: Documenting the Experience of Conflict', a project in which Junior School children filmed interviews with Naval veterans was supported by the Big Lottery and the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council.  Click here to learn more.

* A Documentation Assistant to catalogue our photographic collection, the Museum's largest single collection at over 100,000 items.

Invaluable financial and moral support has consistently been given to the Museum over the past 30 years by the Friends of the Museum and HMS Victory.