The Steamship Historical Society of America

Collection, Library, Archives & Museum

The Steamship Historical Society owns thousands of historical artifacts, fine arts, and ship related ephemera as part of our vast collections. Our photo collection continues to evolve and grow as many benefactors over the last 70+ years have donated their private images and established legacy sub-collections-- these include several hundred thousand images, negatives, and motion pictures. A research library with over 5500 reference volumes and several thousand additional periodicals formerly housed at the University of Baltimore is now mothballed, but scheduled to re-open in the near future. Research requests and inquiries are still encouraged. Members of SSHSA receive special discounts and member requests receive first priority attention. Click on the PDF "Research Requests" below to see current rates and download the document & contact us to initiate a search. 

If you are seeking passenger records transcribed from ship manifests, visit http://aad.archives.gov/aad/index.jsp as the National Archives and Records Administration has recently made over 5.2 million records available online. These immigration records pertain to passengers from several European countries during the mid to late 19th century.

SSHSA is affiliated with Heritage Harbor, Rhode Island’s Historical Museum and an official Smithsonian Museum Partner, scheduled to open in late 2009. The Steamship Historical Society also has traveling exhibits, such as onboard the Queen Mary in Long Beach, CA and including the Stephen Barrett Chase Collection of Rare Steamship Posters. These items and more are made available for display to museums around the country.