This special exhibition, held from March 1 to October 15, 2009, explored the shared history and links between England’s first two permanent colonies in the New World, on Bermuda’s 400th anniversary.

Artifacts and art on display

The exhibition featured more than two dozen artifacts from the Sea Venture underwater archaeological site and objects associated with early government and the Church of England in Virginia and Bermuda.

A dozen 19th- and 20th-century paintings by leading American, Canadian and British artists depicting Bermuda scenes were exhibited along with posters and other promotional materials illustrating the popularity of both Virginia and Bermuda as travel destinations. Discover how historians use nature, artifacts, images and words to learn more about people and places in 17th-century Virginia and Bermuda.

History of Bermuda

Jamestown was the first permanent English colony in America, but the second was not far behind. The Virginia Company incorporated Bermuda under its 1612 charter and sent out a group to settle there.

A British presence was established in Bermuda in 1609 when the Sea Venture, the flagship of a fleet en route to Jamestown, Virginia, founded two years earlier, was shipwrecked. Beginning with the wreck of the Sea Venture, upon which Shakespeare’s play “The Tempest” is based, the exhibition traced Bermuda’s 400-year history. It highlighted its importance as a strategic location and emergence as a premier travel destination in the 20th century.

Watch a video about the Sea Venture and its effect on the colony at Jamestown.