Pieces of the Rock
There are many surviving fragments of Plymouth Rock that were made into jewelry, used to ornament tie clips and walking sticks, or preserved as souvenirs. Additionally, several significant pieces are in institutional collections.
Congregational Library, Boston MA
Famous for its early New England archival and library collections, the Congregational Library also has historical objects and decorative arts related to New England’s beginnings. Pilgrim-related objects include a gavel containing bits of the Rock, presented to the International Congregational Council, Boston, on June 29, 1920 by the Church of the Pilgrimage, Plymouth.
The Pilgrim Society/Pilgrim Hall Museum, Plymouth MA
The Pilgrim Society was founded in part to ensure the preservation of Plymouth Rock and served as its steward for nearly a century before relinquishing the landmark into the care of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Pilgrim Hall Museum’s collection includes gold-mounted cufflinks, pendants, and other personal adornment set with chips of Plymouth Rock, many small fragments, and one of the largest individual pieces of the Rock, weighing several hundred pounds.
Plymouth Antiquarian Society, Plymouth MA
The Plymouth Antiquarian Society acquired a large boulder-sized piece of Plymouth Rock when it purchased the Harlow Old Fort House on Sandwich Street in 1920 to preserve it as a historic house museum. The doorstone of the house was said to have been cut from the base of the famous Rock when the Billings canopy was built and fitted over it in 1867 and brought home by a Harlow family member. In 1984, the Society removed and portioned out the doorstep, donating a large piece to the Smithsonian, another to Pilgrim Hall Museum, and retaining several brick-sized pieces and canvas bags filled with chippings in its own collection.
Plymouth Church, Brooklyn Heights NY
Founded in 1847 by Henry Ward Beecher, the historic Plymouth Church in Brooklyn Heights has a 40-pound piece of Plymouth Rock displayed with a plaque inscribed, “The Door Stone of American Liberty.” The fragment’s provenance appears to be unknown. As the Plymouth Church was founded by transplanted New Englanders, it has been suggested that the fragment may been brought to the Brooklyn congregation by an early member. The piece may have been acquired when the Plymouth Church merged with the Congregational Church of the Pilgrims in 1934.
In the collection of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History is a hefty 21” slice of a larger 400-pound piece that was cut from the base of Plymouth Rock when the Billings Canopy was erected over it in 1867. The 400-pound piece served for years as the doorstep of the Harlow Old Fort House, acquired by the Plymouth Antiquarian Society in 1920. In 1985, the Society cut the historic doorstep into portions to donate pieces to the Smithsonian and Pilgrim Hall Museum for posterity. The Smithsonian piece of the Rock includes traces of a painted “1620” which predated the chiseled date on the “mother” Rock remaining on the Plymouth waterfront.
Union Chapel, London UK
Located in the London Borough of Islington, Union Chapel preserves a large piece of Plymouth Rock, embedded within the arch of a Victorian Gothic doorway. Although in 1992, the historic building was repurposed as a performance venue and continues to be used for concerts and events, the doorway with its American relic remains in place, ornamented with original inscriptions:
Given By The Pilgrim Society [for] the Conservation of Plymouth Rock. A.D. 1883
A fragment of the Rock upon which the Pilgrims of the Mayflower set foot when the landed at Plymouth New England December 21st 1620.
Ay, call it holy ground,
The soil where first they trode.
They have left unstained what there they found –
Freedom to worship GOD.
The Plymouth Rock fragment was given in 1883 to Henry Allen, Union Chapel minister from 1840 to 1891, by the President of the Pilgrim Society in Plymouth, Massachusetts, Thomas Russell.
A letter to the Union Chapel accompanied the gift of the fragment:
Plymouth, Mass.
January 18, 1883[Reverend Sir]
In accordance with a vote of the Pilgrim Society, we take pleasure in forwarding to you for the Union Chapel at Islington, a piece of “Plymouth Rock” and in certifying that it is a fragment of the rock upon which the Pilgrim Forefathers first landed in December 1620.
We are glad that there are those in old England, who prize such a memento of the faith and character of the fathers of New England, and with all good wishes for your welfare and that of the Union Chapel, we are
Very Respectfully Yours.
Thomas Russell
President of the Pilgrim Society
Wm. S. Danforth Secy
of the Pilgrim Society
Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY
A fragment of Plymouth Rock is embedded above the doorway of Vassar’s New England Building, built in 1901. Donated by Vassar graduate and Trustee Florence Cushing, the fragment was provided for the College at her behest by Harvey Hubbard, curator and librarian of the Pilgrim Society, on May 11, 1901, and incorporated into the new building.
“I have forwarded the piece of Plymouth Rock, as you desired, to Vassar College. It was taken by me from a piece of the original ‘Rock,’ which was broken off when the foundations of the canopy now over the ‘Rock’ were put in previous to 1859.”
– Harvey Hubbard, 1901