The Maritime Museum is the most ancient shipping Museum in the Netherlands. Since the establishment in 1874 it developed itself from a modest showroom to a large museum with contemporary exhibitions. The extensive Museum Collection belongs to the most important in the world. Meanwhile the number of Museum assets increased to more than half a million objects. The Nedlloyd Collection plays an important permanent role. Together with the Harbour Museum it is considered as Maritime Quarters Rotterdam. The collection of the Harbour Museum consists of working objects. These objects are connected by a thematically coherence whereas the red wire is the history of the Rotterdam Harbour. The collection is sub divided in themes and is presented in telling stories. It is an ‘open museum’ also accessible outside opening hours for a walk along the quay and sheds. The Harbour Museum is accessible free of charge. The Maritime Quarters Rotterdam is a perfect display of the maritime heritage in- and related to the Rotterdam Harbour.

In 1885 the collection of the Maritime Museum ‘Prins Hendrik’ came in hands of the City of Rotterdam. At the same time the Museum was united with the Museum of Land- and Ethnology. The ‘marriage’ of both Museums formally ended in 1961. In 1948 the maritime Museum became it’s own accommodation at the Burgemeester s’Jacobplein. Many people still have a good remembrance of the building in which also the National Institute of Shipping and Aeronautics was seated. Because of the construction of the Metro the Museum and the institute had to disappear in 1979. After several years of a hidden existence, the Maritime Museum dropped it’s anchor in the Leuvehaven. The collection of the Harbour Museum belonged to the Maritime Museum Rotterdam until 1987. In that year the City of Rotterdam privatised the collection. The collection is now managed by the Maritime Buitenmuseum. Since the transfer of the collection the foundation became more room for restoration and presentation of the collection. Until 2001 the three restoration workshops, a quay and the Leuvehaven are the main parts of the Museum. In August 2002 the Maritime Buitenmuseum merged with the foundation ‘Openlucht Binnenvaartmuseum’. The merge of both Museums caused the largest maritime cultural historic open air Museum in the Netherlands to arise, the actual Harbour Museum.