Plymouth Rock is the symbolic stepping stone from the Old World to the new.
Plymouth Rock’s existence was first recorded in 1715, when it was described in the town boundary records as “a great rock.” The only testimony of the rock’s attribution, however, was given by Thomas Faunce, elder of the Plymouth Church, who in 1741 identified the rock as the place where the Pilgrims first landed.
Faunce received his information from his father, a passenger on the Ann in 1623, who presumably heard it first-hand. The occasion is recounted by James Thatcher in his “History of the Town of Plymouth,” written in 1832.
Colonial America, unlike Europe, had no traditions ready-made, no historic memory, so there was a need for patriotic images around which citizens could unite. In the late 1700s, the desire to have a concrete symbol of the forefathers quickly established the rock in the popular consciousness.
Plymouth Rock became one of the earliest shrines and places of pilgrimage for Americans. It served as the symbol of The Landing, the origin of Plymouth Colony and, by extension, the rest of New England and the entire nation.
The Plymouth Rock in the portico on the waterfront is approximately one-third its original size. Over the years the rock has been in various locations (including in front of Pilgrim Hall), where it was easily accessible to souvenir hunters who chipped away pieces. Part of the rock – equal to the piece that’s under the portico on the waterfront – is in the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.
Tens of thousands of Americans visit Plymouth Rock each year, affirming the importance of the idea of Plymouth Rock in the American consciousness for more than three and a half centuries.
