Antique Slides of Plymouth, Mass.

I'm veering away from my usual type of post to share copies of antique slides of various scenes in Plymouth. We picked up two boxes of Magic Lantern glass slides at a New Hampshire flea market. We don't know anything about them but thought they were pretty cool and were a good price (a reasoning that has led to our house being quite full!). When I looked through them at home, I found some of them were Plymouth scenes probably dating to about 1910. Yippee!

Please excuse the quality--I don't have the appropriate technology to make proper scans.

I love this slide of a map of downtown Plymouth. It's a bit blurry to read, but the top left area is Burial Hill and the top right area is the Pilgrim Monument (now referred to as the Forefathers' Monument). The lower left is Town Brook (next to it is site of the first house) and the middle is Pilgrim Hall. Other things that are marked include Plymouth Rock near the waterfront, the Railroad Station and the Court House.

This slide is of a woman dressed in Victorian clothing sitting atop Plymouth Rock. The canopy was replaced with the larger one you see today in 1920. The waterfront storehouses are long gone but are a reminder of Plymouth's past as a working waterfront.

Here is how the Plymouth Rock portico looks today, from a photo I took last year looking down from Cole's Hill.

Slide of Burial Hill. The first time I saw the historic cemetery, I was disappointed it wasn't in better repair. Fortunately, there is now a group of volunteers who are cleaning stones and restoring the cemetery.

 Here is a 2012 photo of Burial Hill.

This slide shows the view from Burial Hill looking toward the water. Note the old factory smokestack.

The view from Burial Hill today.

Slide of the Forefathers' Monument. If you haven't seen this, it's wonderful! It was dedicated in 1889. It is 81 feet tall, made of granite and cost $150,000 to complete. The standing figure represents Faith, an important ideal of the Pilgrims.

The seated figures represent Morality, Education, Freedom and Law.

Recent photograph of the Forefathers' Monument.

Perhaps this was the view from the Forefathers' Monument toward the ocean. It's too distant to be taken from Cole's Hill or Burial Hill. If anyone knows for sure, I'd love to hear from you.