Services

Library | Archives | Documentation

As a knowledge-producing and publishing body, the Hydrographic Institute houses a specialized library, with a collection of over 20,000 titles, focused on the fields of Marine Sciences, Hydrography, Oceanography and Navigation, Marine Geology, Chemistry and Pollution.

Guided by the needs of the Institute’s technical and scientific departments, the library’s acquisition policy annually enhances its catalogue through the purchase and exchange of works relevants to the Institute’s areas of expertise. In addition to the regular cataloguing of written materials, the IH library preserve a historical collection as well as an important archive of Portuguese nautical cartography from the 19th to the 21st centuries, comprising around 3,500 documents (including charts, maps, plans and other related graphic and photographic records). This includes nautical charts produced by the Hydrographic Institute since its foundation up to the present day, as well as cartographic materials produced by former naval bodies that preceded in the responsibility of mapping national territorial waters. The library also preserves charts, maps, nautical documents and other records from Portuguese-speaking countries, as well as from other international organisations.

The Technical Archive section mainly comprises documentary records related to the production of nautical charts and other official nautical publications (manuals, sailing directions, notices to mariners, tide tables, etc.). Resulting from surveys, campaigns, and technical-scientific missions carried out throughout the 20th century, these Mission Reports include several interesting collections of drawings and photographs, mostly concerning mainland Portugal and the islands, and in many cases, the former overseas territories. The Hydrographic Institute collections also include other relevant resources for research, such as academic documentation or related to the scientific outputs of the Institute and its collaborators (articles, theses, dissertations, studies...). Activity Reports and Programs, Protocols and Agreements, are also an important set of records preserved, as well as for special collections, like those of the Sarmento Rodrigues donation (a collection of drawings for the 1943 Azores router), or the private archive of Manuel Santos Estevens (1913–2001), donated by his widow, Maria Beatriz Estevens, to the Institute.

The Hydrographic Institute document, cartographic, and Technical Archive collections are partly preserved and catalogued in a database, available through the portal: http://arquivo.hidrografico.pt/

The Library catalog is freely accessible through the Collective Catalog of the Defense Libraries.

Local consultation requires prior booking, either by phone: (+351) 210 943 172 or via email:

secretaria.biblioteca@hidrografico.pt

Public opening hours: on working days, from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM.

Open culture...

Housed in a former women's monastery of the Order of the Holy Trinity, since 1969, the Hydrographic Institute is the guardian of a significant architectural and artistic heritage remaining from the buildings nunnery origins. Known as the Convento das Trinas do Mocambo and classified as "Cultural Heritage of Public Interest" since 1943, the Institute's headquarters host several elements of artistic and historical relevance, such as a vast collection of tiles, an apothecary, a court, and a delicate 18th-century kitchen in the manner of the Portuguese Baroque traditions.

According to its knowledge policy and openness to the community, the Hydrographic Institute offers free guided tours to the Convento das Trinas.

Prior booking and enquiries for availability by Email: cultura@hidrografico.pt or Contact form.

Opening time for visiting tours, exclusively on working days: from 9:30 am to 12:30 pm / 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm.

... Heritage

Following the Navy's tradition and policy, the Hydrographic Institute manage and preserve significant collections of artifacts in the fields of Marine Sciences and Techniques, through the study, recording and presentation of a vast array of objects, equipments, instruments and other assets reflecting its technical and scientific activities and institutional history. Related to campaigns, surveys or expeditions, the Institute's museum collections also illustrate the technical and scientific developments of Nautical and Marine Sciences the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries, particularly in the fields of Hydrography, Cartography and Oceanography, Geology, and Marine Chemistry.

The Institute's collections comprise several century-old items, such as a rare Kelvin tide predicting-machine from 1924, once employed in creating Tide Tables. Also a Portuguese iron cloth harvester known as a bagre (catfish) dating from 1950, and a small but remarkable set of lithographic stones applied in the printing of Portuguese nautical charts throughout the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century.

A significant portion of the Institute’s technical and scientific collections is on display in areas included into the visiting circuit.