Case Study: Australian National Maritime Museum expands public access to historic vessels with Gallery Systems' TMS and eMuseum

eMuseum Helps Australian Communities Develop Their National Maritime Heritage

The Australian National Maritime Museum needed a way to publish a richly illustrated, searchable register of historic vessels—including many privately owned boats not previously accessible to the public—and to encourage community nominations and participation. To meet this challenge the museum worked with Gallery Systems, leveraging The Museum System (TMS) for collections management and Gallery Systems’ eMuseum web-publishing tools to drive an online micro‑site for the Australian Register of Historic Vessels (ARHV).

Gallery Systems customized TMS modules (Constituents, Sites, Events) and eMuseum views to present interlinked vessel records, and built a four‑page online nomination form that feeds submissions into TMS. The ARHV launched with 114 vessels and generated nearly 30 new owner or regional entries in its first month, with a target of about 1,000 listings in five years; nominations are saved as PDFs, emailed to admins and refreshed online every two weeks, demonstrating measurable growth in public engagement and collection access facilitated by Gallery Systems.

Australian National Maritime Museum

Daina Fletcher

Senior Curator