Who We Are

The Maritime Museum Foundation supports New Zealand’s unique maritime heritage, primarily by sourcing additional funding support for the
New Zealand Maritime Museum.

History

The Maritime Museum Foundation is a registered New Zealand Charity (CC 10423) and an independent organisation operating under its own trust deed and board.

The Maritime Museum Foundation was established in 2006 as the Bill Laxon Maritime Library Foundation for the express purpose of supporting the Library Collection of the New Zealand National Maritime Museum. The Library includes the significant collection of the late Bill Laxon who was one of New Zealand’s foremost maritime historians and for a number of years was the Deputy Chair of the New Zealand National Maritime Museum Trust Board.

In 2012, recognising the need for support to the New Zealand Maritime Museum and the wider New Zealand maritime heritage story, the Maritime Museum Trustees and the New Zealand Maritime Museum agreed to rename the Foundation the Maritime Museum Foundation.

Our Purpose

The Maritime Museum Foundation supports the New Zealand Maritime Museum and wider New Zealand maritime heritage through the following areas:

The Bill Laxon Maritime Library

A dedicated section of funding to continue with the objectives of the Bill Laxon Maritime Library Foundation, maintaining funding support specifically for the library, held within the New Zealand Maritime Museum.

Maritime history related education and broader objectives of the New Zealand Maritime Museum

Assisting the New Zealand Maritime Museum to promote and fund education opportunities, special exhibitions and maritime heritage events that might be located at the New Zealand Maritime Museum or elsewhere with the core focus of New Zealand’s maritime heritage.

Collections

Funding the purchase of objects of maritime heritage or maritime interest that could be displayed at the New Zealand Maritime Museum or elsewhere. This section of funding can facilitate the purchase of items that are not suitable for direct accession by the New Zealand Maritime Museum and thus require curatorial responsibility to international museum best practice standards – e.g. boats that might be used and or displayed other than at the New Zealand Maritime Museum.

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