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Pilgrim
Hall Museum: an honorable past, a glorious future! |
| The English writer and lecturer J.S. Buckingham toured America during the 1830s. A remarkable account of his Forefathers Day visit to Plymouth in 1838 was published in his book, America: Historical, Statistic, and Descriptive: |
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anniversary of the Landing of the Pilgrims falling this year on a
Saturday, and Saturday evening being revered in many parts of New England
as the commencement of the Sabbath, it was thought proper that the public
ball, which usually closes the proceedings of the anniversary day, should
on this occasion be given on the night preceding. The ball was to be given
in the building called “Pilgrim Hall;” the tickets of admission were
three dollars each, including refreshments; and the hours of dancing were
limited from seven in the evening till three in the morning… The dances, which were all previously fixed on, and announced in a printed code of regulations for the evening, distributed with every ticket, consisted of country-dances, called here, more accurately than with us in England, “contra-dances,” cotillions, Spanish dances and quadrilles…. [as] this is almost the only public entertainment in Plymouth throughout the year, every person that can save up the requisite sum of three dollars, and who feel no scruples of a religious nature as to joining in such entertainments, make a point of attending the annual ball. There was a great mixture, therefore, of classes, and consequently a great variety of tastes in dress, and of general carriage and manners. Many of the gentlemen danced in frock-coats; some had drab, and others black and white plaid trousers, such as were fashionable for morning wear in England a few years ago. One gentleman danced in yellow morocco slippers, and scarcely a dozen were in what would be considered a proper ball-dress at home. The ladies, however, exhibited no such marks of carelessness or neglect in their costume, but ran generally into the opposite extreme [with the] most fanciful mixture of colours [and] great profusion of ribbons… throughout the whole of the long evening, I do not remember to have seen a single countenance which did note express satisfaction, cheerfulness, and good nature. Some of the younger ladies were among the most beautiful that we had yet seen in America; three or four were exquisitely lovely, and, as specimens of feminine beauty, hardly to be surpassed, I think, in any country in the globe… |
| Apart from the beauty of the ladies, Buckingham was most impressed by a heroic-sized history painting: |
| The great attraction of Pilgrim Hall is the noble picture presented to it by the artist, Colonel Sargent, of Boston, who studied under Benjamin West, at the Royal Academy, in London, and whose genius and talent are admirably displayed in this magnificent production of his pencil. It was at first painted as an historical picture, for sale, and the price of it was fixed at 3,000 dollars, or 600 l. sterling; but no one being ready to purchase it at that sum, the artist very liberally presented it to the Pilgrim society, for the adornment of their Hall; and never was private munificence more appropriately bestowed. |
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| Although the Sargent painting captured Buckingham’s imagination, he did acknowledge that Pilgrim Hall housed an “interesting museum of Pilgrim relics.” |
| Buckingham also tells how Pilgrim Hall came to be built. |
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Updated 14 July, 1998
