Name: The Story We Need to Know–Session Five: THE MAYFLOWER PAPERS Reading Group
Start: 2026-03-19T19:00:00-04:00
End: 2026-03-19T20:00:00-04:00
Location: Plimoth Patuxet Museums

$The Story We Need to Know\u2013Session Five: THE MAYFLOWER PAPERS Reading Group$

Explore THE MAYFLOWER PAPERS in a six-session online course uncovering Plymouth Colony and Wampanoag history through eyewitness voices.
About this Event

This program will be hosted online via Zoom. A link will be emailed to all registrants two hours before the program starts at 7pm.

After the international success of the best-selling Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War (2006), author Nathaniel Philbrick and his father Thomas Philbrick (Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Pittsburgh) collaborated on The Mayflower Papers, an engaging, entertaining, and compact anthology of selected writings from Colonial New England. Drawing on chronicles by Governors William Bradford and Edward Winslow, scapegrace Thomas Morton, captive Mary Rowlandson, and Captain Benjamin Church, The Mayflower Papers tell the story of Plymouth Colony and the Wampanoag Homeland from the Pilgrims' life in Leiden, Holland through King Philip's War in the 1670s.The anthology is a collection of six compelling Colonial eyewitness accounts skilfully edited by the Philbricks for readability.

In his preface to Mayflower, Nathaniel Philbrick says that instead of buckled shoes and buckled hats, and the courtship of John and Priscilla Alden, there is an "altogether new, rich, troubling, and complex ... story that we need to know." Led by Senior Historian Richard Pickering, The Mayflower Papers Reading Group is a six-session digital course with welcoming remarks by Nathaniel Philbrick. Throughout the series there will be guest specialists and culture keepers focusing on historical, spiritual, biographical, archaeological or lifeways elements of the eyewitness accounts. Some sessions will feature objects from the Museum's collections and archives. Every element of The Story We Need to Know will contribute to understanding what happened along these shores of change for good or for ill after the promise of the First Thanksgiving.

This is the fifth of six sessions to explore The Mayflower Papers. If you register for all six sessions, following the last session you will receive a special America 250 commemorative gift from Plimoth Patuxet Museums.

The Mayflower Papers is not included with registration. Participants may purchase it through Amazon or support Plimoth Patuxet's educational mission by purchasing it through our Museum Shop.

Upon registration, participants will receive information about the selected pages to read for the corresponding session. On the day of the event, participants will receive the online video link for the digital session. All sessions will be recorded, and registrants will receive access to watch them after the event.

FAQs

How can I contact the organizer with any questions?

Please contact Gabrielle Turcotte, Membership Program Coordinator, at 508-746-1622, ext. 8219 or by emailing [email protected], with any questions or if you would like to purchase tickets over the phone.

What is the cancellation/refund policy?

If you need to cancel your program registration, please contact Gabrielle Turcotte, Membership Program Coordinator, at 508-746-1622, ext. 8219 or via email, [email protected], as soon as possible.