Where can I obtain a photograph or illustration of a specific emigrant-carrying ship?

If you do not know the name of the ship concerned, you should find this out from passenger lists or emigration records in the country of arrival. For more information see the Knowledge Base entry on Passenger Lists (under ‘Record Types’).

Once you know the name of the ship you should find out more details from Lloyd’s Register of Shipping. <Lloyd’s Register Of Ships Online | Archive & Library | Heritage & Education Centre (lrfoundation.org.uk)> [accessed 24 April 2024]. This is published annually and includes the name of each ship, the date of launch, the name of the shipyard that built her, the yard number (this helps you find information about a ship from shipyard records), and any previous names the ship had. Once you have the date of launch, the name of the shipyard, and the yard number, you should look in one of three places for a photograph: records of the shipbuilder (if they survive), records of industrial photographers, and composite collections in libraries and archives.

Shipbuilders’ records

If the ship was built in a shipyard outside Britain you should take the advice of archivists in the country concerned. If it was built in Britain then look for the relevant archives by using the Archives Hub <https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/> and Discovery <https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/> [both accessed 24 April 2024]. An older book may also help but records may have been deposited in other archives services since it was published: L A Ritchie, The Shipbuilding Industry: a guide to historical records (Manchester University Press, 1992).

Industrial Photographers

If your ship was built in Scotland after the 1920s there may be photographs of her among the records of industrial photographers, who covered ship launches, trials and refits. The largest collection in Scotland is that of the firm of William Ralston & Co, which covered many of the launches, refits and trials of ships built in Glasgow and in other yards on the river Clyde. The collection is held by Glasgow City Archives. To check this collection you will, in most cases, need to know the name of the shipyard that built or refitted the ship. Other collections are held by Historic Environment Scotland.

Composite Collections

Photographic collections assembled by shipping enthusiasts or maritime institutions sometimes find their way to archives and libraries. For Scottish built ships the following repositories may be worth checking:

National Maritime Museum, Greenwich <https://www.rmg.co.uk/collections> [accessed 24 April 2024]

Scottish Maritime Museum, Irvine <https://www.scottishmaritimemuseum.org/collections/> [accessed 24 April 2024]

Glasgow University Archives, especially the Adamson Robertson Collection (DC101) and the Photomarine Collection (DC113) <https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/archivespecialcollections/> [accessed 24 April 2024]

Glasgow City Libraries (the Langmuir Collection and Wotherspoon Collection)

Glasgow City Archives holds the photographic collection of the Clyde Navigation Trust and maintains a card-file index of Clyde-built ships, with notes on photographs and illustrations). <https://www.glasgowlife.org.uk/libraries/city-archives/collections> [accessed 24 April 2024]