At the right of the library entrance hangs the original of Robert W. Weir’s Embarkation of the Pilgrims from Delft Haven, purchased by the Society in 1914. From this study, Weir produced the larger painting for the Capitol rotunda at Washington. Above it is an engraving of the Sailing of the Mayflower, from Cope’s original painting, which hangs in the House of Lords in London. There are also engravings of the Signing of the Compact, and the Landing by different artists, and a colored lithograph by Allebe of a picture representing the First Religious service held by the Pilgrims, painted in 1859 by Schwarz of Amsterdam. The vessel bringing the painting to the United States was burned at sea by a Confederate privateer during the Civil War. Over the library door is The Royal Arms, which before the Revolution hung over the judges bench in the Plymouth Colonial Court House, now our old Town House, and was carried to Shelburne, Nova Scotia, by Captain Gideon White, a royal refugee of those times.
Across the head of the hall, under the Sargent picture, are important historical articles, as the Patent of Plymouth Colony, the chairs of Elder Brewster and Gov. Carver, which were brought by them in the Mayflower, the Peregrine White cradle and the Fuller cradle, a chest which belonged to Myles Standish, a carved pew back from the ancient parish church at Scrooby, a chair once owned by Gov. Winslow, and the keystone from an arch in Scrooby Manor. Just inside the door from the curator’s office is a small steel safe containing Gov. William Bradford’s bible, printed at Geneva in 1592. During visiting hours the sacred volume may be seen.
Arranged about the hall on handsome steel tables are exhibition cases of the finest plate glass in America, and in these are displayed and numbered conveniently for recognition by catalogue, very many authentic relics and personal belongings of the Pilgrims and their households. The first at the right on entering contains articles of the White family, among them a cabinet brought in the Mayflower by William White, father of Peregrine, a cane and a candlestick, which he once owned, also a bond written and signed by Peregrine White, who was born on the Mayflower in Cape Cod harbor in 1620, and died in Marshfield, 1704. Next is the Alden case and in it is seen John Alden’s bible dated 1661, a halberd found in a house he once occupied in Duxbury, a deed signed by this fond lover of Priscilla, a christening bowl which belonged to Elder William Brewster, etc. The Standish case is next, and most interesting, for the reason that there is deposited the famous Damascus sword of the military Chieftain of the Pilgrims, together with a large pewter platter and iron pot which he brought in the Mayflower. There are fragments of a quilt which belonged to Rose, his wife, and a specimen of embroidery or “sampler” worked by Lorea, his daughter in 1653, with this verse: