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.