For Immediate Release

The Mariners’ Museum announces partnership to house its world-renowned library and archives in Christopher Newport University’s new library
Public/private partnership significantly strengthens Museum’s obligation to preserve the largest maritime collection in the western hemisphere

Newport News, Va., September 19, 2007—Timothy J. Sullivan, President and CEO of The Mariners’ Museum, and Paul S. Trible, Jr., President of Christopher Newport University (CNU), announced today a joint public/private partnership between the two institutions in which the Museum’s nationally renowned Library will be housed in the new CNU library.

"The union of The Mariners' Museum archival collection and Christopher Newport University’s new library has created in one stroke a scholarly and educational resource without peer in our country," Sullivan said during the announcement made at the Ferguson Center for the Arts. "The Mariners' Museum Library is a treasure trove of rare books, manuscripts, photographs and maps that constitutes the best research resource of its kind in the western hemisphere. CNU’s Library is an elegant and technologically up-to-date facility that meets world-class standards. This partnership significantly strengthens the Museum’s obligation to preserve its collection."

"CNU and The Mariners’ Museum will soon possess a library that is civic in its proportions, elegant in its architecture, 21st Century in its technology and holds in combination a collection of more than 300,000 volumes, including a world-class collection of rare books, manuscripts, maps and photographs that chronicles six centuries of history," Trible said. "The establishment of The Mariners’ Museum Library at Christopher Newport University represents a powerful validation of the hard work and achievement of so many that has made CNU an outstanding liberal arts university. It also represents a remarkable opportunity for us—in concert with our friends at The Mariners’ Museum—to enrich the work of our institutions and our service to mankind."

The Mariners’ Museum Library contains the largest maritime collection in the western hemisphere with 78,000 volumes, one million manuscript items, 600,000 photographs, and several thousand maps, charts, and ships’ plans. Its collection is international in scope and spans six centuries with several titles dating back to the 1500s. Used extensively by international scholars and researchers, as well as interested individuals, it is one of the most comprehensive maritime research collections in the world.

The Paul and Rosemary Trible Library at CNU houses 218,000 physical volumes and 198,744 microforms. In addition to the physical collection, library users have access to 22,000 electronic journals and abstract titles, as well as numerous Internet resources. Construction of the new 100,400-square-foot library is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2007.

The Mariners’ Museum staff will begin moving the collection into its new 23,000-square-foot library space in late summer 2008.

"The Mariners’ Museum will retain complete ownership and responsibility for its collection. Dr. Bill Cogar, Vice President of Museum Operations, will be responsible for overseeing the Museum Library staff and collections in their new home at CNU," said Sullivan. "This innovative collaboration between two public and private entities is an example of the forward thinking The Mariners’ Museum and Christopher Newport University have fully embraced."