Massachusetts Institute of Technology / MIT Museum
Building N51 265 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02139
Open Daily 10am – 5pm / Closed Major Holidays

Hart Nautical Collections

Black Ball Line packet ship Fidelia, oil painting by Samuel Walters (1811-1882).

The Francis Russell Hart Nautical Museum merged with the MIT Museum in 1982. The nautical museum was established in 1922 as a new resource of MIT's Department of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering (founded in 1893) after moving to new quarters in Cambridge from Boston. Ocean engineering at MIT recently merged with the Department of Mechanical Engineering and is now known as the Center for Ocean Engineering.

The original purpose of the Hart Nautical Museum was to support the teaching of naval architecture and marine engineering at MIT. Since its inception over eighty years ago, the collection has developed into one of the most important archives of nautical technology in America. The current focus of collecting is documenting MIT's substantial involvement with ocean technology development and building on the strength of our existing collections.

The Hart Nautical Collections

The collections consist of artifacts, books, plans, photographic materials, models, marine art, and technical records. The following link to Hart Nautical Collections List takes you to a detailed summary listing of these collections and available finding aids.

The Hart Nautical Collection is open to researchers by appointment only, Tuesday through Friday from 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

For access to collections, contact the curator.

MIT Museum Home Collections Hart Nautical

MIT MUSEUM Building N51 265 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02139
P: 617.253.5927 F: 617.253.8994 museuminfo@mit.edu
Copyright © 2008 Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Contact

Kurt Hasselbalch
Curator, Hart Nautical Collections
Phone: 617.253.5942
Fax: 617.258.9107
E-mail: museum-reference@mit.edu

Whirl, a 20 foot waterline design from 1902 by George Owen (MIT class of 1894).

See the most visible aspect of the Hart Nautical Collections in ongoing displays at the Hart Nautical Gallery, located at 55 Massachusetts Avenue, on the MIT campus at Building 5.