Chapter Bio
Founded in 1948, the Nautical Research Guild (NRG) is an IRS 501(c)(3) approved nonprofit educational organization with an international membership of historians, ship model makers, artists and laypersons with a common interest in the history, beauty and technical sophistication of ships and their models.
Our primary mission is to provide support for our members who build historically accurate ship models, while also satisfying the interests of our maritime historians, scholars, and students.
As our motto says, the Guild is dedicated to "Advancing Ship Modeling Through Research". To meet this goal the Guild has published the Nautical Research Journal, a quarterly magazine whose articles span the broad spectrum of topics in the linked disciplines of nautical research and ship model building for over 50 years. The Journal is generally considered to be the best of its kind in the world at balancing these two subjects in a single publication.
We are proud to have been able to provide a platform for original academic articles from university professors and museum curators, as well as how-to advice from world-renowned model ship builders. Since 2018, the Journal has been available in a digital version, expanding our international membership dramatically.
The NRG sponsors an annual Conference where invited speakers present discussions on topics of both historical and technical interest. The Conference also features roundtable sessions where attendees can interact in small groups with elite modelers as they demonstrate technical aspects of our hobby.
The NRG is the owner of Model Ship World, the world’s largest ship modeler’s forum with over 40,000 members. The forum hosts over 900 scratch building logs and over 2,400 kit building logs. We have nearly 700,000 posts in more than 20,000 topics.
Guild members have access to a networking service that can introduce members to modeling clubs in their area. Follow us on Facebook to network with like-minded members and non-members.
We look forward to providing many more years of service to the ship modeling and maritime research communities and will constantly strive to provide the best in modern scholarship and quality advice to those who wish to join us in "Advancing Ship Modeling Through Research."
