Leiden American Pilgrim Museum

The Leiden American Pilgrim Museum is a little exhibition hall in the Dutch city of Leiden devoted to the Pilgrim Fathers. These Separatists or English Dissenters were religious exiles who had fled England to Amsterdam in 1608 and moved to Leiden the following year. In 1620, their displacement started. They cleared out Leiden by trench, going to Delfshaven where they set out on the "Speedwell," which took them to Southampton. In any case, the "Speedwell" ended up being sold, so they exchanged to the Mayflower.

The "Mayflower" attempted the well known voyage to New England in 1620 alone. In the nineteenth century the pioneers' first reap celebration after their landing in Plymouth Colony was recognized as the inception of the yearly Thanksgiving festivity in the United States. The Leiden American Pilgrim Museum is housed in a building dating to around 1365-1370. The house is situated at Beschuitsteeg 9, alongside the ringer tower of the Hooglandse Kerk church. The historical center is worked by the Leiden American Pilgrim Museum Foundation and is available to the general population Thursday through Saturday.

The exhibition hall presents broad data about Pilgrim life in Leiden, together with the historical backdrop of the medieval house itself. In the historical center, an accumulation of furniture, books, and other material from Pilgrim times lights up the lives of these individuals in England, Leiden, and New England. The exhibition hall represents its Pilgrim story with a gathering of sixteenth and seventeenth century maps and etchings by Gerard Mercator, Adriaen Pietersz. van de Venne, and others.