Plymouth Tercentenary Photographs
Description
View the items in Plymouth Tercentenary Photographs
To commemorate the 300th anniversary of the arrival of the Pilgrims, the town of Plymouth, Massachusetts erected new monuments and its citizenry enacted a public outdoor pageant dramatizing "the history of the life and struggles of the Pilgrim Fathers." The height of the celebration occurred on August 1, 1921, when numerous dignitaries including President Warren G. Harding, and a crowd estimated at 100,000 gathered to view the "Pilgrim Spirit" Pageant and Parade. This collection of photographs chronicles the pageant, the parade, and the dedication of the new statues and memorial edifices. The photographer was Edward P. McLaughlin, a local photographer employed by the official event photographer, George Hall Russell.
The 159 photographs were bound into an album which was given to the Library by the Town of Plymouth in 1977. The images are numbered in the order in which they were arranged in the bound volume.
Many of these photographs were published in H. Bloomingdale's book, Plymouth Tercentenary : illustrated with a Brief History of the Life and Struggles of the Pilgrim Fathers, including original program of the "Pilgrim Spirit", by Professor George P. Baker, President Harding's visit, all Scenes, Episodes and Official Photographs of the Tercentenary Celebration. The Library has relied on this source for the titles and identification of many of the images; the full text is available to view here.
The full text of the Pageant by George W. Baker is also available to read on-line.
Another valuable resource used to assist in identifying and dating the photographs was The Story of the Pilgrim Tercentenary Celebration at Plymouth in the Year 1921 written and compiled by Frederick W. Bittinger (1923).
To commemorate the 300th anniversary of the arrival of the Pilgrims, the town of Plymouth, Massachusetts erected new monuments and its citizenry enacted a public outdoor pageant dramatizing "the history of the life and struggles of the Pilgrim Fathers." The height of the celebration occurred on August 1, 1921, when numerous dignitaries including President Warren G. Harding, and a crowd estimated at 100,000 gathered to view the "Pilgrim Spirit" Pageant and Parade. This collection of photographs chronicles the pageant, the parade, and the dedication of the new statues and memorial edifices. The photographer was Edward P. McLaughlin, a local photographer employed by the official event photographer, George Hall Russell.
The 159 photographs were bound into an album which was given to the Library by the Town of Plymouth in 1977. The images are numbered in the order in which they were arranged in the bound volume.
Many of these photographs were published in H. Bloomingdale's book, Plymouth Tercentenary : illustrated with a Brief History of the Life and Struggles of the Pilgrim Fathers, including original program of the "Pilgrim Spirit", by Professor George P. Baker, President Harding's visit, all Scenes, Episodes and Official Photographs of the Tercentenary Celebration. The Library has relied on this source for the titles and identification of many of the images; the full text is available to view here.
The full text of the Pageant by George W. Baker is also available to read on-line.
Another valuable resource used to assist in identifying and dating the photographs was The Story of the Pilgrim Tercentenary Celebration at Plymouth in the Year 1921 written and compiled by Frederick W. Bittinger (1923).
Digitization of these photographs was federally funded with a grant from the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) through the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners and administered by the Boston Public Library in partnership with the Digital Commonwealth. The photographs are available to view here and also in the repository of the Digital Commonwealth.
