The
Pilgrim Story — the hazardous voyage, the 1620 landing, the fearful
first winter, the First Thanksgiving — has inspired the American
people throughout our nation’s history.
The mission of Pilgrim Hall Museum is to protect and foster this
heritage as a dynamic national resource.
Pilgrim Hall Museum is owned and
operated by the Pilgrim Society, a nonprofit educational organization
dedicated to interpreting and preserving the Pilgrim experience.
Membership is not by lineage, although many of our members do
share that precious Mayflower ancestry.
Founded in 1820 (the 200th anniversary of the Landing
of the Pilgrims), the Pilgrim Society has a proud history of preserving
Plymouth landmarks, including Plymouth Rock, which was under the
guardianship of the Society from 1835 until 1920.
The major focus of the Society’s efforts, however, has always
been Pilgrim Hall Museum. Built
and opened in 1824, Pilgrim Hall is the oldest continually-operated
museum in America.
Pilgrim
Hall Museum’s strength lies not only in its longevity, but also in its
collections. Pilgrim Hall
owns the largest collection of original 17th century
artifacts related to the Pilgrims and Plymouth Colony in the world.
It is the only museum dedicated to telling the Pilgrim Story
through exhibitions of original provenanced artifacts.
Paintings in the collection include the 1650 portrait of Edward Winslow,
the only likeness of any Pilgrim painted from life.
Pilgrim Hall Museum’s furniture collection includes great
chairs owned by Plymouth Colony governors William
Bradford and Thomas Prence, as
well
as
the William
Brewster
chest, brought from
Holland to America on the Mayflower, and the wicker cradle of Peregrine
White, first born to the Pilgrims in New England.
Household
possessions include the Allerton-Cushman carved wooden cup, the Peter
Brown
tankard, the Howland
Family
bowl, the Fuller Family salt, the Warren
Family Porringer, the Cooke-Thomson
bowl and William
Bradford’s
1634 silver cup (owned jointly with the Smithsonian). The Loara
Standish sampler, the oldest sampler made in America,
and the Constance Hopkins beaver hat are among the textiles and wearing apparel in the collections.
Arms and armor, including the sword and rapier of Myles
Standish, illustrate the colony’s means of
defense.
The 250-volume rare book
collection is the most comprehensive in Plymouth, featuring imprints
from Pilgrim William Brewster’s press in Holland, the Bibles
of Mayflower passengers William Bradford and John Alden,
and a first edition of Mourt’s
Relation (the earliest published account of Plymouth Colony,
1622). The manuscript
collection includes the 1621 Pierce Patent (the earliest Massachusetts
state document) as well as a deed signed both by Massasoit,
sachem of the Wampanoag, and by Pilgrim Myles Standish.
Pilgrim Hall Museum also
displays a significant collection of history paintings. The Landing
of the Pilgrims by Henry Sargent, measuring 13 feet by 16 feet,
was the main attraction at Pilgrim Hall’s opening in 1824. The
First Thanksgiving at Plymouth by Jennie Augusta Brownscombe
(1912) has become a symbol of the holiday for many.
These national treasures are held in trust for posterity at Pilgrim Hall
Museum. The 180-plus-year–old granite Hall, however, needed immediate
and extensive modifications to guarantee that this trust was upheld.
Climate improvements were imperative, universal access was crucial,
the exhibitions and artifacts had outgrown the existing space, our
permanent exhibition needed to be reconfigured to convey the drama of the
Pilgrim story, a compelling saga of courage and perseverance, to new
generations.
In
order to bring about this transformation, the Pilgrim Society launched The
Campaign for Pilgrim Hall Museum, which addressed these four specific areas: climate,
access, space and exhibitions.
Climate.
Without air-conditioning,
the Hall’s original artifacts were at jeopardy.
Fluctuations in heat and moisture levels are the prime
causes of deterioration in artifacts made of wood, paper and paint.
If continually subjected to the stress of severe swings in
temperature and humidity, these objects eventually disintegrate beyond
restoration. Who could
allow the Peregrine White cradle or the William Bradford Bible or
the painting of The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth to
disappear forever?
And, without air-conditioning, Pilgrim Hall’s visitors were also at
jeopardy! Temperatures in
the Lower Hall during the summer months regularly reached into the 90s,
with almost no ventilation and very high humidity.
Under these conditions, visits were short, unpleasant, and not at
all conducive to a good educational experience!
The
Campaign for Pilgrim Hall Museum, funded by gifts from our
friends and supporters, provided air-conditioning throughout the
entire building. Not an
easy task in an 1824 granite building, but it was done! In addition, a new storage area has humidity controls
to safeguard our most vulnerable artifacts.
Access.
Pilgrim Hall Museum’s
front entry stairs were a barrier. The
Hall has two floors and the only access between floors was a steep
interior stairway; the restrooms – on the lower floor – were not
accessible. There was
nothing more heart-breaking than to witness a visiting family, leaving a
grandmother on a walker or a young son in a wheelchair outside Pilgrim
Hall because they could not navigate one of our daunting sets of stairs.
This situation could not continue.
Universal access into the building and then between the
two floors was not only a legal imperative but a moral one as well.
Gifts made to The Campaign for Pilgrim Hall Museum have
enabled us to provide a new entryway, directly in front of the recessed
Library wing of Pilgrim Hall Museum, bringing all our visitors in
through a single entry and keeping our original Greek Revival façade as
a focal point. The
three colorful stained glass windows in the Library wing – soon to be
backlit and showing a wooded New England coast, a Pilgrim family landing from the Mayflower, and the Pilgrim Fathers bringing law
and religion to New England, will shine through the new glass
entry and be the first sight encountered by our visitors. The new entry contains an elevator between floors and its
lower level houses new accessible restrooms. |
