Mayflower model at the Royal Museum, Edinburgh, Scotland (September 1920)

In September 1920, the Royal Museum of Scotland welcomed the loan of a new addition to its collection of ship models: a model of the famous Mayflower. The Mayflower model was designed by Mr Morton Nance of Carbis Bay, Cornwall and constructed by Mr Richard Patterson of Lasswade, near Edinburgh, who lent it to the Museum. Throughout the tercentenary period, there was much speculation about what the Mayflower would have looked like, and interpretations naturally differed. To an extent this happened along national lines, with British designers like Nance taking account of the wider European network in a way American designers tended not to. Because the original Mayflower had been built in the East of England, Nance’s model drew on Dutch designs of the seventeenth century, which had been influential in that part of the world. Many believed the British "European" design to be more accurate, even though the American version, on display in Washington DC, was the “official” Mayflower model.

Another model was also created in Plymouth and gifted to the widow of the late American Ambassador.