online exhibits

SEE THE SPECIAL Exhibits on display now in the SSHSA Maritime Virtual Art Museum.   MORE >

publications

The authoritative magazine of the history of engine-powered vessels and the legacy of man's journey on the world's seas and waterways.

In this issue:

• The Wilfred Sykes
• Messageries Maritimes’ Three Musketeers
• Sailing British India
• Post-war American Freighters
• Tribute to Andrew Sykora

MORE >

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Featured in the SSHSA Bookstore

Visit the SSHSA Bookstore to see the Extraordinary Historical Books Now Available... MORE >
 

Funding for the SSHSA educational outreach program is made possible in part by a grant from the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities, an independent affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

SSHSA Ship History Center

The Steamship Historical Society of America Ship History Center is open Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 2500 Post Road, Warwick, RI, 02886.  Please call ahead and schedule a research appointment to use the archives.

SSHSA's Archives

SSHSA's archives covers 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.

SSHSA's Image Porthole

An industry leading tool currently in place is our Image Porthole.  More than 60,000 digitized maritime photos are currently available online via the SSHSA Image Porthole

Since its launch 2008, more than 60,000 "lost" pictures of ships, ports, and people now have been preserved, digitized and presented online. In addition to photographic images, the porthole is home to digitized posters, paintings, and artifacts.

SSHSA members can interact with the Image Porthole database and help us identify these images and items. General public may login as guests and view the images.

Visit www.sshsaimageporthole.org to access SSHSA's Image Porthole.

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.