Plimoth Plantation's acclaimed exhibit,
Thanksgiving: Memory, Myth & Meaning, traces the history of the holiday - in fact, in myth, and in the popular imagination. The story begins with present-day customs and moves back through time to the 1621 harvest celebration at Plymouth (later called "The First Thanksgiving"). As you travel though the exhibit, you will find that the American Thanksgiving holiday includes not only the stories of the Native Wampanoag People and the English colonists of Plymouth (popularly known as the "Pilgrims"), but also the Civil War, one very persistent 19th-century woman, innovations in food, immigrants from all over the world and an evolving sense of what it is to be an American.
To read more about Thanksgiving, you can go to our Historical Background section, or visit our interactive Online Learning Center "You are the Historian." For tasty recipes to add a historical touch to your holiday table, go to our Recipes page.
Entrance to the exhibit Thanksgiving: Memory, Myth & Meaning is free with your Combination or Plimoth-Plantation-Only ticket.