Deerfield, Massachusetts, hosted several outdoor historical pageants in the turn of the 20^th century. In 1916, thousands of spectators watched performers act out scenes sharing a fanciful and nostalgic vision of 16^th-century England on the eve of colonization. Like other Deerfield pageants, it celebrated colonial settlement in Massachusetts Bay and other North American colonies from an English perspective. Costumes and props were meant to convey a sense of a long ago time rather than strict historical accuracy. The man in this photograph acted out the part of a minstrel as he sang and accompanied himself on a modern guitar rather than an Elizabethan-era lute.