As a studied American studies and frequent visitor to Plymouth and Boston in New England, I am very interested in the Pilgrim Fathers Museum in Leiden in Holland. I want to learn more about the history of the Pilgrim Fathers. A visit to this small museum is a great way to do that.
What do the Pilgrim Fathers have to do with Leiden Holland?
It's simple. Before the Pilgrim Fathers set out on their journey to America, they tried to live a life according to their own ideas in Leiden. The Pilgrim Fathers belonged to a group of radical religious separatists. They broke away from the Church of England and demanded autonomy for their community. The state church of England and the English royal family could not accept this. The Puritan separatists were therefore persecuted at the beginning of the 17th century under Elizabeth I and James I. A group of Puritan Pilgrim Fathers went to Holland. There they hoped to find more tolerance towards their religion. The people of Leiden in the 17th century were considered open-minded. They also welcomed people whose religion did not conform to the norm.
They spent twelve years in Leiden under the leadership of their pastors Richard Clifton, John Robinson and William Brewster. As foreigners, many of them were only allowed to do poorly paid work. Some of them viewed the Dutch morals of the time with suspicion. They feared their influence on their members. Therefore, in 1620, almost half of the Puritans of Holland decided to join forces with a larger group of separatists. They wanted to sail to America on board the Mayflower with a land patent from the London Virginia Company. Northern Virginia near the Hudson River was their destination. The fact that they finally landed in the Plymouth region in what is now Massachusetts was pure coincidence. A storm had brought them there. After an initial landing on Cape Cod they realized that the island was not suitable for their survival.
The Mayflower Compact
The Pilgrim Fathers agreed in the Mayflower Compact on the first contract of self-government. Since then, they have been regarded as precursors and masterminds of democratic ideas in the USA. A number of American presidents are proud to have members of the Pilgrim Fathers in their lineage. Among them are father and son Bush, Barack Obama and Roosevelt. No less than nine American presidents can boast of this pedigree.
The American Pilgrim Museum in Leiden
This is one of the reasons why the tiny Leiden American Pilgrim Museum is of particular interest to Americans. We wanted to see it because a few years ago we had seen the American places where the Pilgrim Fathers took their first steps on American soil. Beaches of Cape Cod and the city of Plymouth in Massachusetts. Their memory is kept alive there. The Pilgrim Memorial in Provincetown on Cape Cod and the Forefathers Monument in Plymouth commemorate them. We hoped that this museum would give us an insight into the lives of the Pilgrim Fathers in Europe.
The Pilgrim Fathers and the oldest house in Leiden
At first we had a bit of trouble finding the museum. It is located in the oldest house in Leiden, dating from 1370, at Beschuitsteeg 9. The building has little to do with the Pilgrim Fathers. It is run by Jeremy Bangs, a historian from the USA. He has lived and worked in Leiden for more than 30 years. He has been studying the history of the Pilgrim Fathers since the 80s. He has published several books and numerous articles about the Pilgrim Fathers. He is also the one who opens the door to the museum for us when we are about to leave. Although the museum is open, you have to ring the bell to gain entry. The Leiden American Pilgrim Museum is an extraordinary museum.
It consists of two rooms. In one Dr. Bangs works on his studies, when there are no visitors. Over the years he has collected numerous documents and objects from the time of the Pilgrim Fathers. He shows them in these two rooms. He is particularly proud of a map of Leiden from the time and a map that shows the coast of America, as it was known a few years after the arrival of the Pilgrim Fathers in the New World. With bays and lochs, as we know them today, only that they are in a different direction than they are familiar to us. Manhattan and Long Island are located west of Plymouth, not south. Navigation devices, that did not exist at the time, distort the information on this map.
The house of the priest of Leiden
When I asked what this house had to do with the Pilgrim Fathers, Dr. Bangs laughed. He said: "It was the house of the priest of Leiden, and so it is possible that William Brewster, the church elder of the English separatists, was a guest here. However, we have no proof of this." What makes the museum interesting are the stories that Bangs tells his visitors. He tells us how people lived at the time of the Pilgrim Fathers. He shows us documents from that time and then takes us to the house next door. In it he has collected pieces of furniture from the era. These give an impression of how people lived in Leiden at that time.
More about the Pilgrim Fathers at the Leiden American Pilgrim Museum
The Leiden American Pilgrim Museum is unusual, but certainly not for everyone. However, anyone interested in the history of the USA and the time in Holland in the early 17th century will enjoy listening to Bangs' stories. One should not expect a normal museum operation. The whole thing is run as a one-man operation. If Dr. Bangs is out with a group of visitors in the building next door, visitors have to wait outside the museum entrance until he returns. However, it is precisely this personal style of museum tour that makes it so special. We can sense the enthusiasm with which Jeremy Bangs sets out to search for traces in the past. Anyone who gets involved can get a good insight into that time here.
Leiden American Pilgrim Museum
Beschuitsteeg 9, Leiden
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Source: On-site research. We would like to thank the city of Leiden for their support. However, our opinion remains our own.
Text: © Copyright Monika Fuchs and TravelWorldOnline
Photos: © Copyright Monika Fuchs and TravelWorldOnline
