Hull History Centre is very proud to be a partner in this AHRC funded research project led by the University of Bristol. The project is funded for three years, running from 2022 to 2025.

Follow the team's progress via their dedicated blog and see where it all began in an article written for the University of Bristol's Arts Matter blog.

A project website is now live and hosts stories, research findings and much more.

Hull History Centre's contribution

Hull History Centre holds the extensive records of the Mission to Seafarers, as well as a number of smaller collections relating to local maritime missionary societies. These records are a key focus for the project's researchers.

As a partner in this project we are here to provide professional expertise and collections knowledge, to facilitate research access to the archives, and to act as one of the project advisory board members.

Mariners Exhibition, 13 May-26 June 2025

The fantastic team at Bristol created a wonderful exhibition exploring the lives of British and 'Lascar' sailors between 1801-1914. The exhibition is currently touring the major ports covered by the project. We hope you caught the exhibition whilst it was in Hull 13 May-26 June!

To complement the main exhibition, Hull History Centre created a small display of original material in our Library space. We showcased a selection of lantern slides from the Mission to Seafarers collection which reveal ordinary seafarers through their interactions with missionaries whilst in port. You can view a PDF version of the exhibition panels here:

Exhibition: View Through a Lens - Uncovering seafarers lives in the photographs of the Mission to Seafarers