Two new versions of Bradford's "Of Plimoth Plantation" for you to consider

I have many versions of William Bradford's first person journal
Of Plymouth Plantation.  Why more?

Santa brought me a new 2020 edition of William Bradford's journal of the first years of the Plymouth Colony known as Of Plimoth Plantation.  Then their majesties, Los Reyes Magos (The Three Wise Men), brought me another 2020 edition of Of Plimoth Plantation on January 6th!  These were two different books.  How were they different from previous editions, and why do I need more versions of this important book? See the end of this post for a full list of these books, all editions of the same manuscript.

We know so much about the Plymouth Colony, the Wampanoag people, the passengers and their history because of Bradford's first hand account known as Of Plimoth Plantation.  No other early English colony in the USA has as much first hand documentation as Plymouth. (Although the Spanish and French colonies had excellent records)  We have Bradfords's journal, Mourt's Relation, and Edward Winslow's Good Newes from New England all written by people who lived through those first difficult years at Plymouth.  Because of these wonderful manuscripts we can reconstruct the history, along with new archaeological evidence, and other documents and artifacts from this time period. Interpretation of these documents, including Bradford's manuscript, has changed over the years as we learn more about 17th century Plymouth Colony. 

If you look above, I have a big stack of my different editions of Bradford's journal.  I also have an old version of Of Plymouth Plantation printed in the 1950s and edited by Samuel Eliot Morison.  Each book is a transcription of Bradford's original manuscript, which is in the Massachusetts State Library in the statehouse in Boston.  This manuscript has an interesting history, including being missing for more than a century.  It was hidden in the Old South Church of Boston during the American Revolution, but disappeared after British soldiers occupied the building.  Then the manuscript was found in Bishop of London's library, and returned to Massachusetts in 1897. A copy was published in 1912.  

Since that time many versions of Bradford's journal have been published since 1912. The most famous was Morison's 1952 edition, with his notes and transcription.  Since then many editors and historians have published new transcriptions, with new discoveries to mention in notes, and some new transcriptions based on new evidence.  In the photo above you can see my 2002 or 50th anniversary reprint of this classic book by Morison.  

I cherish my 1981 paperback copy of Of Plimoth Plantation, even though it is a small, textbook version because it was gifted to me when I became a member of the Mayflower Society.  I enjoyed Caleb Johnson's 2006 version because he signed it, and I heard him speak about it at an event in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Caleb's edition includes many supplementary documents, which makes it very interesting for Mayflower research. 

I knew that the 400th anniversary of arrival of the Mayflower would probably be the year another edition would be published. However, I was very surprised to learn that two books would be published! I didn't know how they would differ until I actually held them in my hands this week.  

First,  I received the book Of Plimoth Plantation by William Bradford, 2020, edited and introduced by Kenneth P. Minkema, Francis J. Bremer, and Jeremy D. Bangs.  I knew about this book last year from attending several Mayflower events at the New England Historic Genealogical Society before the pandemic hit.  It was advertised in their journals, and anticipated by many genealogists and historians. It was published by both NEHGS and the Colonial Society of Massachusetts.  This book not only has three introductions, but also a special introduction by Paula Peters of the Wampanoag Nation, and a special edition of Bradford's Hebrew Lists (he was teaching himself to read Hebrew) with an introduction by Eric D. Raymond of the Yale Divinity School.  It contains 755 pages, and is the biggest book of all the editions of Bradford's journal.

I was surprised to see the second book I was gifted of Of Plimoth Plantation was a slim volume of 317 pages.  This 2020 book was published by the Plimoth Patuxet Press of Plymouth, Massachusetts (formerly known as the Plimoth Plantation Museum).  The introductory materials and forward are from the Massachusetts State Library, and run only ten pages. What makes this book remarkable and completely different is that the rest of the book is a facsimile of the original book, completely restored and digitized between 2012 and 2014.  The images of the digitized pages are almost the same size as the real book, which makes this edition very close to Bradford's journal. It's easy to imagine you are reading his historic journal while holding this book. 

In 2019 I attended a reception in Plymouth when an edition of The Brewster Book Manuscript was published, and the original, restored volume of this book was displayed. You can read all about the Brewster book at my two blog posts HERE and HERE.  This amazing edition has each digitized page on one side and the transcription on the opposite page, so the reader can compare the original to the printed text.  I knew the new Bradford book would be a digitized edition of his journal, and at first I was disappointed that there was no printed transcription of his ancient handwriting. However, now I'm glad it is completely original, with no interruptions of transcriptions or notes. After a day of figuring out his script, I can easily read straight through the book with no trouble. If I can do it, you can do it, too! If you already own a transcribed version of Bradford's Of Plimoth Plantation, this might be a good choice for you. 

Pages 288 and 289 of this edition have the Mayflower passenger list

Page 288 close up 
Including my Allerton, Standish, 
and Tilley ancestors

For the truly curious, a listing of the Bradford Journals on my book shelf (newest to oldest):

Bradford, William, Of Plimoth Plantation: A Facsimile of his Original Manuscript. Plimoth Patuxet Press: Plymouth, MA, 2020

Bradford, William, edited by Minkema, Kenneth P.; Bremer, Francis J.; Bangs, Jeremy D., Of Plimoth Plantation by William Bradford: The 400th Anniversary Edition. Colonial Society of Massachusetts and New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2020. 

Bradford, William, edited by Caleb Johnson, Of Plimoth Plantation: Along with the full text of the Pilgrim's Journals for their first year at Plymouth.  Xlibris Corporation, 2006. 

Bradford, William, edited by Samuel Eliot Morison, Of Plimoth Plantation 1620 - 1647 by William Bradford Sometime Governor Thereof.  Alfred A. Knopf: New York, 2002. (A 50th anniversary edition or reprint of the 1952 edition)

Bradford, William, edited by Francis Murphy, Of Plymouth Plantation 1620 - 1647.  Modern Library College Editions by Random House, 1981. 

Also mentioned above:

A Sneak Preview of the New Brewster Book Manuscript in Plymouth, Massachusetts:  https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2019/09/sneak-preview-of-new-brewster-book.html

Part Two of the Brewster Book Manuscript: https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2019/09/part-two-of-brewster-book-manuscript.html 

My annual list of Christmas gift books 2020 (is there a book in this list that you need to read?):

https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2021/01/what-did-genea-santa-bring-christmas.html  

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To Cite/Link to this post:  Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Two new versions of Bradford's 'Of Plimoth Plantation' for you to consider", Nutfield Genealogy, posted January 9, 2021, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2021/01/two-new-versions-of-bradfords-of.html: accessed [access date]).