Canada's Oldest and Largest Maritime Museum
The Maritime Museum of the Atlantic is the oldest and largest Maritime Museum in Canada. The original concept of the Museum can be credited to a group of Royal Canadian Navy officers who envisioned a maritime museum where relics of Canada’s naval past could be conserved.
Starting with a small space at the Halifax Dockyard in 1948, the museum then moved to quarters in the Halifax Citadel in 1952, and became the Maritime Museum of Canada in 1957.
Floods and fires in the early 1960s caused temporary relocations to a variety of sites until 1965, when a home was found in a former bakery building at the Navy’s Victualling Depot. The Museum became the Marine History section of the Nova Scotia Museum in 1967.
The exhibits remained on Citadel Hill while the offices, library and some of the collection moved to the new Nova Scotia Museum building on Summer Street in Halifax in 1970. Through the 1970s, a long search for a permanent home ensued.
Finally, in 1982, the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic was established on the site of the Robertson & Son Ship Chandlery and A.M. Smith and Co., properties on the Halifax Waterfront. It opened on January 22 of that year. Since then, more than 5.8 million people have visited the Museum.
The Museum is a valuable historical, cultural and educational institution. It is the largest site in Nova Scotia that collects and interprets various elements of Nova Scotia’s marine history. Visitors are introduced to the age of steamships, local small craft, the Royal Canadian and Merchant Navies, World War II convoys and The Battle of the Atlantic, the Halifax Explosion of 1917, and Nova Scotia’s role in the aftermath of the Titanic disaster.
Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Accessibility
The Maritime Museum of the Atlantic values equity, diversity, inclusion and accessibility. We see these as drivers for necessary institutional change.
We acknowledge that we must address our history of exclusionary practices; we are part of a shared heritage and must be part of the shared work for change.
We aim to contribute to the creation of more welcoming and inclusive communities by engaging the region’s maritime experience in all its breadth and diversity, including our enduring and complex relationships with water and the sea.
Facility Event Rental Services
Events Anchored in a Place of Tradition - unique event spaces steeped in history and tradition for groups of all sizes at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic.
Allow Freehand Hospitality to assist in planning your next event at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, located in the heart of downtown Halifax, on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean.
The Museum is located close to the downtown business core, hotels, and is next door to the newly developed Queen’s Marque district. With ample public parking just next door, the Maritime Museum not only offers space for unforgettable events, it offers a convenient and hassle-free option. The Freehand Hospitality events team is on hand to assist with catering, audio-visual, furniture rentals, and more.
Please contact [email protected] or visit Freehand Hospitality.
Contact us
For general museum enquiries during museum hours, please call 902-424-7491 or email [email protected].
Maritime Museum of the Atlantic
1675 Lower Water Street
Halifax, Nova Scotia
CANADA
B3J 1S3
Our Staff
| General Manager | Kim Reinhardt | [email protected] |
| Senior Curator, Marine History | Amber Laurie | [email protected] |
| Curator/Registrar, Marine History | Kirby Ross | [email protected] |
| School/Group Bookings | Laurel Shea | [email protected] |
| Marketing and Community Outreach | Jenny Nodelman | [email protected] |
| Visitor Experience and Education | Sarah Trecartin | [email protected] |
| Curator of Interpretation | ||
| MMA Boat School | [email protected] |