National Park Service |
Our Mission | Our History | Our Projects | Contact Us | Credits |
Maintaining inventories of historic U.S. maritime properties | ||
Providing preservation assistance through publications and consultation | ||
Educating the public about maritime heritage through our web site | ||
Sponsoring maritime heritage conferences and workshops | ||
Funding maritime heritage projects when grant assistance is available |
We work in partnership both within and outside the National Park Service. Partners within the National Park Service have included the Archeology and Ethnography Program, Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record, the National Register of Historic Places, Heritage Preservation Services, the Submerged Cultural Resources Unit, as well as NPS Regional Offices and Parks. Outside the Service, we have worked with organizations such as the U.S. Coast Guard, the Naval Historical Center, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, State Historic Preservation Offices, the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the maritime preservation community in general. |
Our Projects |
Maritime Inventories |
Preservation Assistance |
The Web
Conferences and Workshops | Maritime Grants |
Large Preserved Historic Vessels | ||
Historic Light Stations | ||
Historic Lifesaving Stations (developed through a partnership with the U.S. Life-Saving Service Heritage Association) | ||
Shipwrecks and Hulks | ||
Small Craft (developed through a cooperative agreement with the Museum Small Craft Association) |
We have published two of the inventories, the 1990 Inventory of Large Preserved Historic Vessels and the 1994 Inventory of Historic Light Stations. Portions of the ship and lighthouse inventories are currently available through our web pages while access to the MSCA small craft database is hosted by the Mystic Seaport museum web site.
Preservation Assistance The Maritime Heritage Program provides technical assistance in preservation planning for historic maritime properties and underwater archaeological resources. These activities include assessment of impacts from redevelopment, construction, demolition, or restoration; mitigation of adverse effects; review of archeological research designs; review of restoration plans. The Initiative also participates in policy formulation and review regarding Federal maritime preservation planning efforts. Through various partnership projects we have also developed a number of publications addressing maritime preservation standards and guidelines. We can also provide advice for nominating maritime resources to the National Register of Historic Places. Bulletins for nominating historic vessels and shipwrecks, and aids to navigation to the Register are available to assist in this task. As well, we can provide guidance on the National Historic Landmark designation process and sample nominations. A number of landmark studies for ships and lighthouses are available on our web site. The Web Through our web site we strive to provide quality information about maritime history and preservation. As mentioned previously, many of our publications and NHL studies are available on our site. We also connect you to NPS maritime parks and many other historic ships, lighthouses, and lifesaving stations that you can visit. As well, we provide select materials addressing topics on lighthouse heritage as well as links to more about historic ships and the current maritime world. Conferences and Workshops Since its inception, our program has supported and sponsored several maritime heritage conferences and workshops. In the fall of 2001, we assisted in the organization of the Maritime Grants Currently, we have no funding available for grants. Our most recent grants cycle was in 1998 under the Maritime Heritage Grants Program. Through this program we were able to support 39 maritime heritage education and preservation projects. |
Contact Us Link to our Contacts page. |