Calendar of Events

Calendar
of
Events

Pilgrim Hall reopened February 1, 2009!

America's oldest museum has entered the 21st century!
Pilgrim Hall Museum has recently completed a major expansion & renovation project, adding air-conditioning and a new entry. The "new" museum also features an imaginative reinstallation of the permanent exhibitions of 17th century Pilgrim artifacts.

Visit Pilgrim Hall Museum's new spaces, new exhibitions & new ways of presenting history!
Celebrate the Pilgrims' legacy in the restored grandeur of our Main Hall and then encounter the actual artifacts used and owned by the 17th century Plymouth Colonists, in a new and dramatic installation.
Pilgrim Hall Museum is open daily from 9:30-4:30 February 1 through December 30, 2009.

2009 - The Year of the Dutch!
Exhibition: The Dutch Connection
May 31 - December 30, 2009

2009 marks the 400th anniversary of the Pilgrims' arrival in the city of Leiden, where they would spend 11 formative years before emigrating (via England and the Mayflower) to America.

In honor of this anniversary, Pilgrim Hall Museum's major temporary exhibition for 2009 (June-December) will focus on the relationship between early New England and The Netherlands - from the time of the Pilgrims through the American Revolutionary War.

The exhibition features
A View of Leiden, 1650, by Dutch Baroque Era painter Jan Van Goyen
on loan from Leiden's De Lakenhal Museum
and the
Original 1609 Record Book of the City of Leiden
in which was given permission to the Pilgrims to settle in Leiden
on loan from the Leiden Regional Archives
(the record book is on view from May 31 - August 31 only due to its fragility).

The Dutch Connection
is generously sponsored by
Bruce & Patricia Bartlett
The Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal, Leiden
The City of Leiden, The Netherlands
The Massachusetts Society of the Order of the Cincinnati
The Town of Plymouth Visitor Services Board and
NorthEast Community Bank.

The Pilgrims had a connection with tulips!
Read about it HERE.

The Netherlands has issued a stamp commemorating the Pilgrims' stay in Leiden.
For a look at the stamp, log onto home.planet.nl/~hemel026/pilgrims-eng.htm

Year of the Dutch Program: Fedele's Let's Do Chocolate!
Saturday, July 11, 2009 7:00 pm
at Pilgrim Hall Museum

The Dutch invented a method known as "Dutch process cocoa" that helped make chocolate affordable for all! In honor of this contribution, Ron Fedele of Fedele's Let's Do Chocolate in Plymouth's Village Landing Marketplace will talk about the wonderful world of chocolate.

Open to the public, no charge.
Limited seating, reservations advised.
Call 508 746-1620 Extension 2.

Generously sponsored by
Cold Spring Best Western, Plymouth

Program: Book-Signing & Author Presentation
at Pilgrim Hall Museum
Thursday, July 16 at 7:00 pm
Presented in cooperation with the Colonial Society of Massachusetts
Len Travers and Sheila McIntyre, editors of
The Collected Letters of John Cotton, Jr., 1640-1699

Struggling to recover from a sex scandal that almost ruined his career, John Cotton Junior became the Plymouth church's minister in 1667. Over the next three decades, Cotton reinvented himself, reviving a long-troubled faltering church and assuming a place among the colony's leadership. Cotton's clouded past, however, returned to haunt him and ultimately contributed to the controversial end of his ministry. Cotton's surviving correspondence, soon to be published by the Colonial Society, uncovers fascinating detail regarding Plymouth history but it also reveals the sometimes sweeping consequences of youthful indiscretion.
Open to the public at no cost.

Sponsored by

Year of the Dutch Program: Planning a Flowering Bulb Garden
Wednesday, August 5, 2009 11:00 am
at Pilgrim Hall Museum

There is nothing more Dutch than tulips! And autumn is the time to be planting your Spring 2010 tulip garden. Massachusetts Horticultural Society Master Gardener Kathi Griepy will tell us how to plan a garden using flowering bulbs, such as tulips and daffodils. More details to follow!

Its a 185th Birthday Party!
Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Free admission and birthday cake to honor Pilgrim Hall Museum's founding on September 1, 1824.

Trip to Nantucket
Tuesday, September 21, 2009

A bus/ferry trip to the Nantucket Whaling Museum to view the "Harbor & Home" exhibition (featuring, among other treasures) Pilgrim Hall Museum's Mercy Otis Warren table.
Organized through the Back Roads of the South Shore museum collaborative.
For more information, log onto:

Back Roads of the South Shore Museums

Author presentation: James Baker
Early fall: date to be announced

Author James Baker will speak about his new book Thanksgiving: The Biography of an American Holiday. More details to follow!

Year of the Dutch Program: Beer & Cheese Tasting
October 2009

To honor the Dutch connections! More details to follow.

Program: Our National Thanksgiving
- with Thanks to President Lincoln & Mrs. Hale
Saturday, November 7, 2009 7:00 pm

Sarah Josepha Hale, the Victorian lady whose 30-year campaign to make Thanksgiving a national holiday was ultimately successful when Abraham Lincoln heeded her call and released the first of an unbroken series of Presidential Thanksgiving proclamations in 1863, visits Pilgrim Hall Museum! (And expect a cameo appearance by Abraham Lincoln himself who is, this year, celebrating the 200th anniversary of his birthday!)

Holiday House Tour
Saturday, December 5 & Sunday, December 6, 2009
Preview Party Friday, December 4

Visit some of Plymouth's most interesting homes, festively decorated for the holidays. More details to follow.

Forefathers Day 2009
Monday, December 21

Forefathers Day, December 21, is the anniversary of the day the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth. The Pilgrim Society has been celebrating Forefathers Day since 1820, when our honored guest and speaker was Daniel Webster.

Looking towards the Future!

In 2020, we will be celebrating the 400th anniversary of the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth
(and the 200th anniversary of the founding of the Pilgrim Society.
Planning has already begun - and not a moment too soon!
Do YOU have an idea of something that should be incorporated into the celebrations?
Send it along to pegbaker@pilgrimhall.org

On June 10, 2008, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick visited Pilgrim Hall Museum and signed an Executive Order creating a State Commission to plan the celebration of the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the Pilgrims in 2020.
Click HERE for pictures of that event.

Do you need to contact us directly? Use pegbaker@pilgrimhall.org

Make a difference! Donations to the Pilgrim Society, to support the operations of Pilgrim Hall Museum, can be made online through www.networkforgood.org or by filling out a Donation Form
and mailing it to Pilgrim Hall Museum.

All material on this Website is copyrighted and may not be republished in either print or electronic format without the express written consent of the Pilgrim Society.