''Signing of the Mayflower Compact ''(1922) is a fifteen-figure, bas-relief sculpture by Cyrus E. Dallin located at the base of Monument Hill below the

Pilgrim Monument The Pilgrim Monument in Provincetown, Massachusetts, was built between 1907 and 1910 to commemorate the first landfall of the Pilgrims in 1620 and the signing of the Mayflower Compact in Provincetown Harbor. This campanile is the tallest al ...

Provincetown, Massachusetts Provincetown () is a New England town located at the extreme tip of Cape Cod in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, in the United States. A small coastal resort town with a year-round population of 3,664 as of the 2020 United States census, Provi ...

. The sculpture is one of three major commissions he received as part of the Pilgrim Tercentenary in 1920. The other two were the statue of

Massasoit Massasoit Sachem ( ) or Ousamequin (1661)"Native People" (page), "Massasoit (Ousamequin) Sachem" (section),''MayflowerFamilies.com'', web pag was the sachem or leader of the Wampanoag confederacy. ''Massasoit'' means ''Great Sachem''. Although ...

Plymouth, Massachusetts Plymouth ( ; historically also spelled as Plimouth and Plimoth) is a town in and the county seat of Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States. Located in Greater Boston, the town holds a place of great prominence in American history, folklor ...

and the Pilgrim half dollar, which featured renditions of a pilgrim and the ''

Mayflower ''Mayflower'' was an English sailing ship that transported a group of English families, known today as the Pilgrims, from England to the New World in 1620. After 10 weeks at sea, ''Mayflower'', with 102 passengers and a crew of about 30, reac ...

'' under sail. The relief sculpture is made of cast bronze and embedded in a substantial Rockport granite

exedra An exedra (: exedras or exedrae) is a semicircular architecture, architectural recess or platform, sometimes crowned by a semi-dome, and either set into a building's façade or free-standing. The original Greek word ''ἐξέδρα'' ('a seat ou ...

with seating on either side. Dallin visited the site on May 6, 1922. The bronze plaque measures 9 by 16 feet and contains ten men, three women and two children gathered around a sea chest on which

Governor William Bradford William Bradford ( 19 March 15909 May 1657) was an English Puritan English Dissenters, Separatist originally from the West Riding of Yorkshire in Northern England. He moved to Leiden in the Dutch Republic in order to escape persecution from Jame ...

is signing the precedent making

document A document is a writing, written, drawing, drawn, presented, or memorialized representation of thought, often the manifestation of nonfiction, non-fictional, as well as fictional, content. The word originates from the Latin ', which denotes ...

. The setting is the beamed interior of a wooden ship lit by a lantern overhead. Governor Bradford is signing the document with a quill pen with

Myles Standish Myles Standish ( – October 3, 1656) was an English military officer and colonist. He was hired as military adviser for Plymouth Colony in present-day Massachusetts, United States by the Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony), Pilgrims. Standish accompan ...

clad in armor dress standing immediately to his right and

Elder Brewster William Brewster (c. 1566/67 – 10 April 1644) was an English official and ''Mayflower'' passenger in 1620. He became senior elder and the leader of Plymouth Colony, by virtue of his education and existing stature with those immigrating from ...

nearby.

The figure of the boy on the left is based on Dallin’s son Lawrence and the woman standing overseeing Bradford’s signature is modelled on Vittoria Collona Dallin, his wife. The female standing with a child on the right is based on Dallin’s own sculpture of Anne Hutchinson which stands on the grounds of the

Massachusetts State House The Massachusetts State House, also known as the Massachusetts Statehouse or the New State House, is the List of state capitols in the United States, state capitol and seat of government for the Massachusetts, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, lo ...

. Renowned trailblazing sculptor

Anne Whitney Anne Whitney (September 2, 1821 – January 23, 1915) was an American sculptor and poet. She made full-length and bust sculptures of prominent political and historical figures, and her works are in major museums in the United States. She received ...

had modeled for that work. According to remarks by Thomas Thacher the monument was designed with the concept of the

Shaw Memorial The ''Memorial to Robert Gould Shaw and the Massachusetts Fifty-Fourth Regiment'' is a bronze relief sculpture by Augustus Saint-Gaudens opposite 24 Beacon Street, Boston (at the edge of the Boston Common). It depicts Colonel Robert Gould Shaw lea ...

in front of the

. Both are substantial multifigured bronze reliefs mounted in stone with seating on either side. Two major differences are that the Shaw Memorial by

Augustus Saint-Gaudens Augustus Saint-Gaudens (; March 1, 1848 – August 3, 1907) was an American sculpture, sculptor of the Beaux-Arts architecture, Beaux-Arts generation who embodied the ideals of the American Renaissance. Saint-Gaudens was born in Dublin to an Iris ...

is in high-relief and rests in a setting of Tennessee marble. In 2019, the town completed a restoration of the relief, supporting granite structure and grounds of Bas Relief Park. This effort culminated a process begun in 2016 in anticipation of the 400th anniversary of the Pilgrims arrival in 2020.

References

{{Mayflower passengers and related topics 1922 sculptures Sculptures of men in Massachusetts Works by Cyrus Edwin Dallin Bronze sculptures in Massachusetts Sculptures of women in Massachusetts Outdoor sculptures in Massachusetts Monuments and memorials to the Pilgrims Sculptures of children in Massachusetts Reliefs in the United States Reliefs Provincetown, Massachusetts Monuments and memorials in Massachusetts

See also

References