A walk through Plymouth’s rich past
PLYMOUTH —
Tourists flock to America’s Hometown for a bite of American history and, occasionally, to get away from their own. But, it turns out, history can follow you, in more ways than one.
With funds from the Visitor Services Board and a state grant, as well as the expertise of local officials, businesses and historians, Plymouth 400 Inc.’s Mobile Marketing Program is putting together a traveling exhibit of Plymouth’s rich history.
“It’s a moving ad,” Plymouth Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Denis Hanks said. “It’s an educational reintroduction to the Pilgrim and Native American story.”
Hanks, who serves on Plymouth 400 Inc., the nonprofit organization charged with planning the town’s 400th Anniversary Celebration, said the content of the exhibit will present the dual perspectives of the Wampanoag and the English Colonists, giving both voices equal play.
Visitors will get to explore the day-to-day lives of Pilgrims and Native Americans with interactive exhibits and models of homes and wetus and all sorts of artifacts. The exhibit will also explore the relationship between Colonists and Native Americans as they interacted and formed alliances prior to and after the first Thanksgiving.
“The exhibit should travel all over the country and world, really,” Hanks said. “It will also entice visitors to the exhibit to come here, to the place where it all happened.”
Consultants for the exhibit include the town 400th Anniversary Committee member and Wampanoag interpreter Tim Turner, local historian Jim Baker, Pilgrim Hall Museum Executive Director Ann Berry and local graphic artist Mary Shields, of Shields Design Studio.
The 3,000-square-foot traveling exhibit should be complete in 2016, when it is scheduled to hit the road. When town officials recently visited Plymouth, England, mention of the traveling exhibit was met with enthusiasm, Hanks said. Several of the British officials asked that the exhibit stop in their towns.
Efforts like this aren’t just wonderful educational programs, Hanks said; they encourage tourism, and boost the local economy. A traveling exhibit of Plymouth’s history is a reminder to any who view it that America’s Hometown is a wonderful place to visit.
By Emily Clark
Wicked Local Plymouth
