Plymouth was an American automobile marque produced by the Chrysler Corporation from 1928 until 2001. Throughout most of its history, the brand’s visual identity centered on a single recurring motif: the Mayflower, the ship that carried the Pilgrims to Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1620. The ship emblem appeared on radiator badges, hood ornaments, and later in a final roundel format used until the brand’s discontinuation.
Design and History
The first Plymouths of 1928 carried an emblem featuring the Mayflower in rear three-quarter profile under full sail, a view that remained in use on badges through the 1930s and 1940s.[1] The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History holds a Plymouth radiator emblem from this era showing the Mayflower clipper ship under full sail with the text “Plymouth” etched into the water below.[2] A similar early emblem carried the text “Chryslery/Plymouth” in the water, reflecting the brand’s initial positioning as a Chrysler product.[3]
The Henry Ford museum in Dearborn, Michigan holds a circa 1935 Plymouth radiator emblem made by the Fox Company of Cincinnati, Ohio for the Chrysler-Plymouth Division. The cloisonné badge is rendered in black, white, and silver and carries the inscription “PLYMOUTH / CHRYSLER / CORP / PRODUCT.”[4]
The ship emblem and mascot disappeared from Plymouth cars in the late 1950s, replaced by the corporate Pentastar through the 1970s and 1980s.[1] The Pentastar, introduced in September 1962, had replaced all logos in use by Chrysler-Plymouth literature, advertisements, and dealership signage by 1981.[5]
In 1996, Plymouth revived the Mayflower in a new roundel format, showing the ship in side profile moving left. The brand used this roundel logo from 1996 until the company ceased operations in 2001.[6] Fox News described this final mark as “a modernized version of a sailing ship in the company’s final roundel.”[7]
Meaning and Symbolism
The Mayflower imagery directly referenced the ship that carried the Pilgrims from England to the Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts.[4] The French automotive publication La Revue Automobile notes that Chrysler chose the logo as a tribute to the English immigrants who founded the American city of Plymouth, having arrived aboard the Mayflower in 1620.[8]
The brand’s name, however, had a more pragmatic origin. According to Chrysler’s official history, vice president of sales Joe Frazer suggested the name Plymouth because farmers, the target buyers of the low-priced models, were familiar with the products of the Plymouth Cordage Co. of Plymouth, Massachusetts.[7] The Plymouth Cordage Company was the largest cordage maker in the world at the time, and its best-known product was Plymouth Binder Twine.[9]
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