The Mayflower Compact, a document signed aboard the ship Mayflower in 1620, set forth principles of tolerance and liberty for the government of a new colony in the New World. Pilgrim leader William Brewster is shown signing the document; John Standish, the colony's military leader, stands at left.
Left: The Native American symbolizes the importance to the colonists of friendship with the people of the New World.
Right: A Pilgrim woman uses a spinning wheel in front of a typical house. During times of peace, such domestic scenes would have been common.
About the Cox Corridors Murals
The first floor of the U.S. Capitol's House wing is elaborately decorated with wall and ceiling murals by artist Allyn Cox. The central east-west corridor is referred to as the Great Experiment Hall because it chronicles in 16 murals the legislative milestones of three centuries, from the signing of the Mayflower Compact in 1629 to the enactment of women's suffrage in 1920.