The Maritime Museum in Dubrovnik is located in the Dubrovnik Fortress of St. John. It was founded in 1941 by organizing an exhibition called Maritime Roads and Dubrovnik through the centuries. The museum has been part of the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts since 1949, and in 1987 it merged with the Dubrovnik Museum. The museum is housed in St. John's Fortress, which was restored after the catastrophic 1979 earthquake. The permanent exhibition of the museum was set up in 1986 and shows the maritime history of the city of Dubrovnik and its surroundings. The exhibition features models of ships from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, numerous flags, cannons and other weapons, nautical instruments, logbooks, folders, various documents, as well as a valuable library with many rare copies of books and important archival material.