New

Maritime Women

A new exhibition at the Maritime Museum Rotterdam from 3 October 2025 tells the tales of maritime women. These stories have not been told before, even though women definitely made their mark on our maritime history and still do today.

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For centuries, women went aboard ships, ran shipyards or worked in the ports or fishing industry. Some of them even became pirates! Why? They were driven by enthusiasm for the world of shipping, the need to earn money or love for their husband and family. This exhibition looks at the women in shipbuilding, inland navigation and the docks as well as on board ships. They are all covered in the exhibition.

The curator, Irene Jacobs, spent years investigating this group in depth. She discovered information in our collection about hundreds of women. Further research was then carried out based on those photos, letters and other documents. Some of the results of that research are on display in the exhibition, along with stories from the present day.

It is often assumed there were no women, or that they were unable or unwilling to do certain jobs, but that assumption is incorrect.

Discover the Maritime Women platform

“People assume there were no women, or that they were unable or unwilling to do certain jobs, but that’s incorrect,” says Irene Jacobs, a curator at the Maritime Museum.

We have set up the Maritime Women platform to share stories of women in maritime history, as well as tales from the present day. We also invite everyone to share their own stories about maritime women.

Discover the platform now

Researching Maritime Women

The study carried out by our curator Irene Jacobs with financial support from the Dutch Research Council (NWO) focused on the maritime women who can be found in the museum’s collection. These were women operating in the maritime world, in ocean and inland navigation, the fishing industry or shipbuilding.

Have a look at the results of the study

The museum partnered with the design agency Lots of Space (Wendy Rommers and Cristel Lit) for the design. Materials from previous exhibitions were reused and supplemented with new elements, such as large curtains that partially hide the stories and invite the viewer to take a closer look. Red and pink are used to emphasise the contrast between stereotypes and the women’s strength.

The Maritime Museum often reuses elements from earlier exhibitions. To give an example, the exhibition ‘Launch!’ on the same floor is built from materials that were previously in the exhibition ‘The Port’.

This exhibition displays a wide range of objects, such as watercolours and other paintings, photographs, personal possessions, navigation instruments and letters. These come from the Maritime Museum collection as well as from other museums, including the National Maritime Museum in Amsterdam, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen and Naturalis.

As well as this exhibition, we are presenting various events, meet-ups and a photo exhibition throughout the year, all centred on the theme of ‘Maritime Women’. If you would like to stay posted, sign up for our e-mail newsletter.