Located in a beautifully preserved house built circa 1365-1370, the Leiden American Pilgrim Museum tells the stories of the founders of New England, the Pilgrims. Furnishings from Pilgrim times show aspects of daily life, while events involving the Pilgrims themselves are illustrated with a remarkable collection of sixteenth and seventeenth-century maps and engravings. Click here for a 7-minute video tour of the museum. Click here for more photos. Click here for a 2020 interview with Museum Director Dr. Jeremy Bangs.

Curator Sarah Moine holds a clay pipe used during the 17th century and points out some of the features of the one room that shows what homes at the time of the Pilgrims were like, including a bed built into the wall where people would sleep sitting up.

Sarah displays a Geneva Bible similar to one that the Pilgrims would have used, as well as a ledger from the time showing tax records from that time kept on a writing desk in the room. 

Next door is an exceptionally preserved medieval interior that was maintained by the church nearby and later used for storage which kept the room from being modernized.