As those familiar with the story of the life of William Bradford may already know, he lived in Leiden, Netherlands in the 1610s. During this time he worked as a weaver. I recently came across a series of paintings of weavers by the Dutch artist Cornelis Gerritsz Decker. Although they were painted decades later, I think they do a good job of show what Bradford’s home would have looked like. The one room house (with an attic above) would have been his workshop, and it would have been no small challenge to fit in the large room. These paintings do a good job showing the dark and cramped conditions in which he worked. While laboring away in a space like this, he thoughts turned to a better life in the new world.
We recently took a trip to the Netherlands, stay tuned for some more photo posts showing what Leiden at this era was like.
