Mayflower 400: Legend And Legacy

Featuring more than 300 objects drawn from museum, library and archive collections across the UK, USA and The Netherlands, Mayflower 400: Legend and Legacy is an epic journal of survival, imagination and 400 years of America.

The exhibition has been created in partnership with the Wampanoag Advisory Committee to Plymouth 400 in Massachusetts and uses objects, images and ideas to explore early English attempts to colonise America, and acknowledge conflict with Native America and the impact of colonisation on the indigenous population.

Mayflower 400: Legend and Legacy also discusses the context of the sailing of the Mayflower in 1620, details the lives of the passengers, and considers the cultural, demographic and personal legacies of the story.

Many objects are coming to Plymouth for the first time, or are returning to the city for the first time in 400 years. Native American items from the National Museum of the American Indian and the Harvard Peabody collection present 12,000 years of indigenous history, while the Second Peirce Patent from Pilgrim Hall Museum is the oldest existing state document of New England.

A new Wampanoag piece, created specifically for this show by the artist Nosapocket/Ramona Peters, will be on display. Her artwork is Plymouth’s first-ever artistic commission to a Wampanoag artist and we are honoured to welcome it into the permanent collections of The Box.

A partnership with the New England Historical Genealogical Society has enabled us to present the images of 1,000 Mayflower descendants of today.

All visits to The Box must be pre-booked and you can book your ticket here (you will need to log in or register an account).

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Mayflower 400 Proudly Supported by our National Sponsors and Funding Partners