The Mayflower Compact, 1620 

Jean Leon Gerome Ferris painted this scene of the signing of The Mayflower Compact sometime before 1930, likely in oil on canvas, using traditional techniques for figurative painting. In this work, material considerations extend beyond the artist’s studio, highlighting the raw materials that underpin society: the wood of the ship itself, the roughly hewn timber structure of the cabin, and the very paper upon which the compact is being signed. This texture is rendered through subtle variations in color and brushwork, which lend a tactile quality to the scene. These materials, however, are not presented neutrally. They are infused with labor and class dynamics. Consider the labor required to fell the trees, transport them, and transform them into a seaworthy vessel, not to mention the unseen labor of those who produced the clothing of the figures depicted, or the knitting in the hands of the woman on the right. Ferris asks us to consider the social context in which the signing took place. By emphasizing the materiality of the scene, Ferris invites us to look beyond the familiar narrative, and consider the complex interplay of labor, resources, and power that shaped the founding of a new colony.