Significance

The rest of the note attached to the glass shard explains that it was brought to the United States from England by George Morton around the time of Mayflower. Morton arrived to the New World in 1623, three years after the Mayflower and published the first written report of the Mayflower’s arrival to Cape Cod and the eventual settlement of their colony in Plymouth (Winslow and Bradford, 1623). This report titled Mourt’s Relation was written by original Mayflower pilgrims Edward Winslow and William Bradford (Allen, 1908). Upon reading the name Mayflower on the note, the narrative invoked is one of puritans, voyagers, and the culturally embedded symbols that are the pilgrims of the Mayflower. However, after this picture of commemorative history is painted, there is a realization that this glass shard wasn’t even on the original Mayflower but rather arrived three years later, yet its connection to such an iconic time period is what gives it its relevance and power.