Jamestown, Quebec, Santa Fe: Three North American Beginnings April 29, 2007

If 1492 began a period of exploration, 1607 inaugurated another momentous chapter in world history, the colonization of America north of Mexico. This 4,000-square-foot exhibition takes a multicultural approach to the virtually simultaneous introduction of English, French and Spanish culture into this vast area. It tells the stories of the first permanent English settlement in 1607, the first permanent French settlement in 1608, and the chartering of the first villa in New Mexico in 1609. These stories appear in a new light when viewed in the context of the others. The exhibition traces the societies that emerged out of those settlements to about 1700. Fifty lenders provided 150 rare surviving European and Native artifacts of this early period, which illuminate the complexity of European colonization and interaction with the indigenous population.