Towards a Local History of Interwar Anglo - American Relations: Commemorating the Pilgrim Fathers on the Humber, c.1918–1925

Abstract

This article examines the history of an overlooked monument to the so-called ‘Pilgrim Fathers’ dedicated at Immingham, Humberside, in September 1925. Drawing upon contemporary press coverage as well as the rather limited extant archival record, the article connects the monument to overlapping local, national and international contexts, including the Anglo-American diplomatic rapprochement of the post-1890 period, the Mayflower Tercentenary of 1920, the post-1918 economic challenges of Hull and the surrounding region, and the transatlantic tensions which emerged after the war (especially around naval disarmament and the Treaty of Versailles). In doing so, the article shifts attention away from the far more familiar south coast geography associated with commemorations of the Pilgrim Fathers, it reveals the important role played in the project by civic and municipal elites, and at its broadest it uncovers what might be reasonably termed the local history of Anglo-American relations in the post-1918 period.