Collection: Diving Museum

Collection-level records:

• Collection overview (Collection development policy)

  The Historical Diving Society was established in 1990 and The Diving Museum, which is wholly owned by the Historical Diving Society, in 2011.

  Source: Collection development policy

  Date: 2020

  Licence: CC BY-NC

• Collection overview (Collection development policy)

  The Society owns a wide collection of artefacts and literature ranging from diving-related toys to diving bells, and from diving company catalogues to scientific publications on diving research. They cover all aspects of diving: sport, scientific, commercial, archaeological, naval, entertainment, and diving history.

  A major part of the John Bevan Collection, which was previously on display in the Shipwreck and Heritage Centre at Charlestown, in Cornwall, was loaned to us in order to establish The Diving Museum. This included most of the outside exhibits, such as diving bells, a 1930s atmospheric diving suit, a two-man swimmer delivery vehicle designed for the Royal Navy, and two compression chambers which were from the Royal Naval Physiological Laboratory. John’s collection has since been formally donated to The Diving Museum. The RN Diving Branch loaned several types of underwater breathing apparatus, and the National Museum of the Royal Navy loaned a selection of important historical items and artwork originally from the Siebe Gorman Diving Museum. They also loaned us and then passed to our collection a JIM atmospheric diving suit and a wooden scale model of Argonaut Junior, a 3-wheeled seabed vehicle originally made in 1894 in America, which incorporated an airlock. Many diving-related organisations, members of the Historical Diving Society and other individuals have donated or loaned a wide variety of diving equipment and accessories, in particular, the late Bob Campbell’s important collection of SCUBA regulators has been donated to The Diving Museum. Other important donations include a 3-metre scale model of the wreck of HMS Edinburgh made for the film Gold from the Deep donated by Rick Wharton; another atmospheric diving suit, a Newt Suit, and a fully equipped saturation diver and bellman were donated by Subsea 7; and QinetiQ have donated a large quantity of diving equipment that had been used for evaluation purposes over many years. Military medals and ephemera relating to Lt. W. Bailey, Cdr. L. Crabb and Stoker Sydney Knowles, famous divers from WW2, have been loaned by their respective families and, in the case of Cdr. Crabb’s medal, by the National Museum of the Royal Navy.

  A large number of books have been donated and The Historical Diving Society now has an extensive reference and research library of some 5000 books, documents and photographs. Our archives include Royal Naval diver training records going back to 1921, several personal divers’ logs, commercial diving equipment catalogues and scientific publications on diving research. We also have about 500 films and videos, and about 2500 items of diving apparatus and related items.

  We use a database for cataloguing, managing, and tracking all objects, in which every object is given a unique number. Each entry includes a 1-line description and if necessary additional notes which can be considerably longer, as well as other details of the item and of its acquisition. In January 2023 the total number of items recorded exceeded 9000.

  All our paper and film artefacts are kept in our concrete storeroom familiarly known as The Bunker, a Second World War Air Raid Precaution Centre now owned by the HDS, which has a suitable and stable environment. It is located about a mile from The Diving Museum.

  Source: Collection development policy

  Date: 2020

  Licence: CC BY-NC