This chapter describes the small number of collections which do not belong in the preceding chapters, namely, the research collections, miscellaneous accumulations and non-maritime records.

The non-maritime collections range from the business records of local manufacturers to local societies, and includes our parent organisation, the National Museums & Galleries on Merseyside. These collections have been given detailed treatment where it was considered there might be an interest for maritime historians. Vulcan Foundry Co., Ltd., for example, exported many of the locomotives it produced through the port of Liverpool, and was a shipbuilder for a short period in the 1850s. All of the non-maritime and business records described in the following chapter are stored at the reserve store and are available strictly by appointment only.

Two of the largest research collections held at the Maritime Archives & Library are described in this chapter. These are the records compiled by members of the Liverpool Nautical Research Society, which are an invaluable source of information of Liverpool's maritime history, particularly eighteenth and nineteenth century shipowners and shipbuilders, and the Merseyside Docklands History Survey, a study undertaken on Liverpool's South Docks in the early 1980s.

Miscellaneous collections have only been included in this Guide where there is a distinct maritime connection. The two collections described in this chapter are those of the Liverpool solicitors, Alsop, Wilkinson, who specialised in maritime affairs, and the Bryson Collection of business and family ephemera, much of which originated from the rubbish bins of solicitors offices. Many of the smaller collections of miscellaneous items are held in the DX collection (and its predecessor, the SAS collection). The series DX/1 to DX/600 covers the period between 1974 and 1986, and DX/700 and all succeeding numbers cover items acquired since the inception of National Museums & Galleries on Merseyside. All of the maritime items from this series, relating to subjects covered earlier in the Guide, such as slavery and emigration, are described in the appropriate chapters. Although most of the non-maritime items of the DX/1 to 600 series have been transferred to the Merseyside Record Office and the Liverpool City Record Office, many of the collections relating to NMGM's areas of interest have been retained, and are held at the reserve store, available strictly by appointment only.