-
The Plymouth automobile was first introduced in the United States on July 7th 1928, with the company crest featuring a rear view of the Mayflower ship.
The original inspiration for the company name derived from Plymouth binder twine, produced by the Plymouth Cordage Company based in Plymouth Massachusetts; the landing spot of the Mayflower in 1620.
The historical significance of the name Plymouth, combined with the popularity of the car – due in part to the popularity of the twine among farmers – inspired the naming of multiple cities, towns and townships throughout the United States, of which – according to the 2012 American Community Survey – there are thirty such examples of Plymouths.
The Mayflower West Car Park on Mayflower Street provided a suitable contextual space in which to display extracts from the photographic collection 30 Plymouths, on a site soon to become a bus terminus, further alluding to notions of arrival, departure and transience for which Plymouth is inherently defined.