For a more detailed subject index to the Museum, try the Museum A to Z Page . The collection includes artifacts, images, charts and plans relating to the marine history of Nova Scotia. Nova Scotia small craft and local shipwrecks are particular strengths of the collection much of which represents the period 1850 to the present. The collection includes everything from sextants, binnacles and figureheads to small craft, anchors, armaments and marine portraits and our largest artifact, the 1913 hydrographic vessel CSS Acadia . The museum preserves artifacts by keeping them in a carefully monitored environment.
More active conservation is carried out by curatorial staff.
The museum has a full-time boatbuilder to restore and conserve the small craft collection. Conservation and restoration work is on-going on the CSS Acadia . The museum conducts research to develop exhibits, to document its collection and answer public enquiries. Two recent major research projects were a survey of small craft throughout the province to document vanishing designs and traditional boatbuilding methods and an oral history programme to record life aboard the hydrographic ship CSS Acadia and cableships that operated from Halifax. The museum offers annual research grants for marine history and works with a number of research associates to explore topics of mutual interest.