Built In 1820 To Bring Worldwide Attention To The Role Of The Early Pilgrim Settlers In The Founding Of America
It was the year 1820, the two hundredth anniversary of the Mayflower’s arrival on the shores of New England. To honor the event, a group of history enthusiasts came together in Plymouth, Massachusetts, to form the Pilgrim Society, dedicated to bringing worldwide attention to the role of the early Pilgrim settlers in the founding of America. Membership in the society was not, and is not today, based on genealogy. Any interested party can join.
One of the Pilgrim Society’s first projects was to build a museum suitable for housing and preserving the many artifacts, books and documents that soon began to swell its collection. In 1824, Pilgrim Hall opened in the middle of Plymouth, a short walk uphill from the harbor and Plymouth Rock, where legend says the Pilgrims landed. The granite building, designed like a Greek temple with six columns across the front, was the first public museum in the young United States and remains the country’s oldest in continuous operation.
From its first days, artifacts poured into the museum, many donated by descendents of the First Families. Some items actually arrived aboard the Mayflower in 1620. On display are William Bradford’s Geneva Bible, the sword carried by Myles Standish, chairs and chests used by William Brewster, William Bradford, John Alden and other Pilgrim elders, as well as wooden cups, beer tankards, and kitchen equipment used in Plymouth, Duxbury and other towns founded by the Pilgrims. There’s even a collection of napkins which the founders draped over one shoulder during meals.
“Everything here has a personal story to tell,” Donna Curtin, executive director of the museum, tells The Buzz. “We have the first sampler made in America, stitched by the daughter of Miles Standish, the embroidered shoe worn by a Penelope Winslow at her wedding, and a beaver hat worn by Constance Hopkins - very stylish at the time. We also have a huge collection of Native American artifacts.” The Bradford chair, an ornate seat constructed from turned spindles, is one of the first pieces of furniture constructed in the New World, Curtin says.
One of the most moving artifacts for Donna Curtin is a wicker cradle, believed to have come over on the Mayflower. “It tells the story of Susanna White,” Curtin says. “She was one of three pregnant women on the crossing and brought this Dutch cradle along. It was such a risky voyage for a mother-to-be. Her son Peregrine was born just before they disembarked from the ship, the first Pilgrim child born in the New World. Then Susanna lost her husband during that first terrible winter, but in May, 1621, she married Edward Winslow who had lost his wife in the same sickness. It was the first wedding celebrated in the New World.”
The hooded cradle woven of willow shoots, which descended in the Winslow family, has survived nearly 400 years. “People are amazed by its story,” Curtin says. “It really brings the historic figures to life.”
Bringing the Pilgrim story to life is one of the main purposes of Pilgrim Hall, one it has pursued even as the Pilgrim myth has evolved in popular culture. The Mayflower crossing, the landing on Plymouth Rock, the First Thanksgiving have all become iconic moments in the early story of English settlement of the Americas. In Pilgrim Hall, numerous images that have helped shape these stories are on display, including the monumental Henry Sargent oil painting. “Landing of the Pilgrims,” which hangs in the museum’s lofty main hall.
In front of the painting sits a piece of Plymouth Rock. “We encourage people to touch it, to have a personal experience with this piece of history,” Donna Curtin says, “something you can’t do down at the harbor.”
Another exhibit in the main hall shows the evolution of the popular image of the Pilgrims through the centuries, beginning with the stark, black and white outfits often associated with the early settlers. In fact, Curtin says, research has shown that the First Comers often wore clothes of bright colors. Black only became a trendy color several decades after the founding of Plymouth, and was more associated with formal clothes even then.
No American tradition is more linked with the Pilgrim story than Thanksgiving and the day is a popular one for a visit to Pilgrim Hall, which remains open on the holiday. Former director and librarian Peggy Baker did extensive research on Thanksgiving, available as a series of essays on the Pilgrim Hall website. She traces the development of Thanksgiving to the merger of three traditions that became a national holiday thanks to Abraham Lincoln
“One tradition is the harvest festival such as that held in Plymouth in the autumn of 1621,” Baker found. “The second tradition is the Puritan religious Day of Thanksgiving called by a religious leader in response to a special act of Divine Providence. The third tradition is a special day of thanksgiving, called by a civic (not a religious) authority, to celebrate a specific event, such as victory in battle or the end of a war.”
By the time Pilgrim Hall opened, the celebration of a Thanksgiving feast was spreading across the country, state by state. In 1863, President Lincoln established it as a national holiday and set the date as the last Thursday in November, where it has remained ever since.
For Donna Curtin, the Pilgrim story is the forerunner of one that continues to this day. “The Pilgrims were immigrants twice over,” she says. “They first went to Holland, then set sail into the unknown, looking for the same things that people come to America for today - the freedom to worship and live as they like, the opportunity for their children to have better lives. They had such a hard time and went through lots of trials and tribulations. But their perseverance and sacrifice helped mold the country we have today.”
Renee Wright
A graduate of Franconia College in Social Psychology, Renee has worked as Travel Editor for Charlotte Magazine and has written three travel guidebooks for Countryman Press among other writing assignments. She enjoys food and camping.
Make Sure To Stay At:
Scusset Beach State Park, located on Cape Cod Bay at the east end of the Cape Cod Canal. It is a popular swimming and camping area. The 98-site camping area is very popular with trailer campers.