The Navy Records Society was established in 1893 as a scholarly text publication society to publish historical documents relating to the history of the Royal Navy. Professor Sir John Knox Laughton and Admiral Sir Cyprian Bridge were the key leaders who organized the Society, basing it on the model of earlier organisations such as the Hakluyt Society and the Camden Society. The American naval historian, Rear Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan, was one of the first overseas members to join the Navy Records Society.
Between 1893 and 2006, the Society published 150 volumes of documents on every period of British naval history, and continues to publish two new volumes annually. To mark its centenary in 1993, the Society published a general volume of documents that illustrated the broad sweep of its complementary areas of interest, including Naval warfare, Naval administration, and Naval social history: British Naval Documents, 1204-1960, edited by members John B. Hattendorf, R. J. B. Knight, A. W. H. Pearsall, N. A. M. Rodger, A. B. Sainsbury, and Geoffrey Till.
Official Website of the Navy Records Society