The Collection includes many fine engravings, including some first impressions.
During the second half of the eighteenth century the tradition arose that an engraver producing an image of an Admiralty subject would present one of the first finished engravings to the First Lord.
These 'first impressions are of extremely fine quality since the engraved lines on the copperplate, from which the engraving was pressed, were sharp. With each subsequent pressing the lines would become gradually less distinct and the value of the finished engraving subsequently lower.
Many engravings in the collection are finished by the application of watercolours; all the eighteenth and nineteenth century examples, both coloured and monochrome, are extremely sensitive to light and must be displayed in carefully-controlled locations under special UV-resistant light.
Sheerness is a commercial port and main town of the Isle of Sheppey and owes much to its origins as a Royal Naval dockyard town. John Rennie was the 19th Century engineer who surveyed and designed a new Dockyard for Sheerness.
Work commenced in December 1813 and the Duke of Clarence who later became King William IV formally opened the completed Dockyard on 5th September 1823. It served the Navy until 1960.