Exhibition Maritime Women
A new exhibition at the Maritime Museum Rotterdam, starting in October 2025, will tell the stories of maritime women who have remained largely unknown until now. Because women have certainly left their mark on our maritime history and they continue to do so to this day.
For centuries, women have been boarding ships, running shipyards or working in the harbour or fishing industry. Some even became pirates! Why? Out of passion for the work in shipping, to earn money, or out of love for their husband or family. The exhibition is about women in shipbuilding, inland shipping or on shore and also on board. They are all discussed in the exhibition.
Curator Irene Jacobs conducted extensive research into this group for years. It turned out that there were hundreds of women, of whom we had something in the collection. Further research was conducted based on those photos, letters or other documents. Part of this research can be seen in the exhibition, supplemented with stories from today.
The assumption is that women were not really there and could not, would not or did not do things. But that image is not correct.
