Our goal is to help generate knowledge and give support to users, whether they be private individuals or professional investigators.
To promote access to information resources and guide researchers, the Museum has a very powerful search program that allows users to view collections, archive documents and bibliographical documents from a single access point.
Before visiting, contact us at informacio@mmb.cat
Reading room
The Museum has a reading room available to users in the Library. This is a comfortable and pleasant space overlooking the Museum. At your request, Museum employees will supply you with books, photographs, documents from the historical archive and even objects from our collection (size permitting) such as navigational instruments, engravings, nautical charts, etc.
The reading room is a working space where you can access our information resources and take notes or photographs, all while viewing the Museum halls from above. Because of its proximity to the spaces where paper and photographic materials are kept, these can be accessed quickly.
Research support
The Museum gives you the opportunity to ask our professionals for guidance and advice, and to take advantage of the knowledge they have acquired over the years. This knowledge cannot be found in any guide or digital resource; it is part of these professionals’ personal baggage and can be very useful to users, so we are eager to share it.
The Museum also gives support to more complex or specialized investigations in the social sciences, through the Permanent Observatory on Maritime Culture and History of the Mediterranean. You can send any requests to informacio@mmb.cat.
We also have plenty of knowledge on resources available outside the Museum, in other institutions such as Museums, Archives or Libraries. We can often provide guidance to users on external means of investigation.
Guides and resources
On a daily basis, the Maritime Museum of Barcelona works to bring together tools and resources that allow for access to information. These range from our collections catalogue to the management system of our general archive, and also include themed library guides , internally-produced guides like the Resource Guide on Maritime Barcelona, or specialized articles.
Frequently asked questions FAQs
Can I ask you a question on a historical topic or on your collection?
Yes. However, it is important to remember that we will try to help you and provide guidance, but we cannot investigate for you. We will inform you of our resources and we will provide you with a guide, but we cannot carry out complex investigations. Please send any questions to informacio@mmb.cat.
Do you have passenger lists?
Users often seek information on individuals who sailed or immigrated through the Port of Barcelona. Unfortunately, we have not conserved (or located) passenger lists among the Museum’s documents, the historical collections of the Port of Barcelona, or the documents of the former Capitania Marítima of Barcelona, which is an archive of the Spanish Navy. For more information, visit the Library blog
Currently, the only available resource is the Boletín de la Compañía Trasatlántica de Barcelona, spanning 1892-1894. It can be found here.
Our collection also includes documents from the steamship Habana (Mediterranean-New York–Havana route, dated 02/10/1946) with a record of passenger fees both going and returning (Veracruz-Bilbao, Bilbao-Veracruz, dated January-August 1936).
In these cases, we recommend that you consult the resources compiled on the following page:
Can I obtain reproductions of ship blueprints?
The Maritime Museum of Barcelona can help you to obtain ship blueprints in a number of ways.
These blueprints may be in the Museum’s general collection or may be part of one of our historical collections, such as the records of the Compañía Trasatlántica, Talleres Nuevo Vulcano de Barcelona, Proname, etc. Published blueprints can also be found in the library, and we recommend that you consult specialized publications on model ships.
Consult our catalogue and send your request to informacio@mmb.cat.
Can I obtain photographs of the Museum’s collection?
Copies of photographs from the Maritime Museum of Barcelona’s different collections can be obtained. On the one hand, we have photography collections made up of antique photographs with historical or documentary value that the Museum has collected from different sources over the years, or that belong to company or personal collections. In general, these are made up of pictures of ships, ports or individuals. We also have photographs of Museum pieces, objects and documents, which serve to document them and make them more accessible to the public.
Depending on the interests and the needs of users, the Museum can allow users to view photographs or can provide them with copies. To know what we have available, you can consult our catalogue and the FotodeMar blog. Please send any requests to informacio@mmb.cat.
Opening hours
The Archive and the Library have fixed opening hours: mornings from Monday – Friday, 10:00 am – 2:00 pm, and Wednesday afternoons from 3:00 pm – 6:30 pm.
Our other services (photography archive, collections, map library, etc.) do not have opening hours. Those wishing to visit must first make an appointment with Museum staff by writing to informacio@mmb.cat.
Can I donate books, documents or objects to the Museum?
If you would like to donate documents or objects to the Museum, we ask that you send your proposal to informacio@mmb.cat. All proposals, either for the donation or sale of objects, are evaluated by an Acquisitions Commission that will study the viability of the proposal and will then provide you with an answer.
In the case of books or magazines, you can send an email to biblioteca@mmb.cat and we will explain the steps to follow.
Can I make suggestions or provide you with information that I think would interest you?
The Maritime Museum of Barcelona is very interested in comments or suggestions from the public, and we very much appreciate it if you share knowledge with us. We encourage you to help us learn more and to do our job better. Please send any comments to informacio@mmb.cat.
