It is two years today since Professor Robert Winston opened the Brunel Institute, a £6 million archive, library and education centre situated next to the ss Great Britain.
The Brunel Institute holds some 67,000 items, including:
- 4,500 maritime, engineering and ship-building books;
- more than 7,000 ship plans;
- 250 ship models;
- 35,000 maritime photographs;
- passenger and crew diaries and letters;
- more than 150 films;
- and Lloyd’s Register volumes dating back to the 1700s.
The National Brunel Archive, a collaboration between the ss Great Britain Trust Trust and the University of Bristol, houses rare engineering drawings, plans, and diaries of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, his father Marc and brother Henry.
The ss Great Britain Trust’s director of conservation and education, Rhian Tritton, said: “It has been a successful two years. The Brunel Institute has become a focal point for exciting education projects as well as a centre for maritime history and research on Isambard Kingdom Brunel.”
