Each museum’s basic objective is the collection of historical objects, their protection, conservation, research and providing access to them for society.
During its over 60 years the NMM in Gdańsk has collected over 27 thousand exhibits. A couple of thousand further objects originating from its own archaeological research are under way in various stages of conservation, and when the process is successfully completed or they are possibly reconstructed, they will be transferred to the museum’s appropriate department.
The biggest collection in the Tri-city of Polish and foreign publications on maritime matters, comprising over 27 thousand books and 35 thousand journals, is a great support for any research in the field. The reading room at the NMM library is open to the public.
Also impressive are the collections of the NMM Documentation Department, where we can find an Archive of People of the Sea initiated by Professor Bolesław Polkowski and the CMM Friends Association. Today there are entries there on about 2500 people. Members of the SIMP Ship Section participated in establishing and developing the Archive of Polish Ship Constructions (it includes 2235 archive entries). Other collections developed since the very beginning of the Museum are: the Archive of Written Acts (7744 entries), the Photography Archive (11413 photographs), the Cartographic Archive (1972 pieces.) and the Mechanic Archive (373 pieces). The Department also collects documents on the history of the Museum. The collections are made available to researchers upon their presentation of the subject of their research and signing all the necessary guarantees (mainly concerning observing the Act on personal data protection).