Leiden American Pilgrim Museum
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About
The Pilgrim Museum Leiden is a small museum in Leiden, dedicated to the Pilgrims who sailed to the New World on the Mayflower. It was founded in 1997 by American historian Jeremy Bangs.
The Pilgrims were religious refugees who had fled England to Amsterdam in 1608 and moved to Leiden the next year. They lived and worked in that city for about 12 to 20 years. In 1620, they left Leiden by canal, going to Delfshaven where they embarked on the Speedwell, which took them to Southampton. But the Speedwell proved leaky and had to be sold, so they transferred to the Mayflower and undertook the famous voyage to New England. The colonists' first harvest festival after their arrival at Plymouth Colony was the origin of the annual Thanksgiving celebration in the United States.
Adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA). Photography via Wikimedia Commons.