THE CARRIAGES
at Shelburne Museum
By Lilian Baker Carlisle
Museum Pamphlet Series, Number 1
PUBLISHED BY
THE SHELBURNE MUSEUM
SHELBURNE · VERMONT
COPYRIGHT 1956
BY THE SHELBURNE MUSEUM, INC.
SHELBURNE, VERMONT
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
BY THE LANE PRESS, BURLINGTON, VERMONT
[iii]
Can You Remember ...
In the 1900 United States census, there were listed 4,571vehicle-constructing concerns. They employed 126,000 men and paidyearly wages to the amount of $70,000,000. Fifty years later one or twospecialists still manufacture a limited variety of vehicles, but duringour lifetime the carriage trade has vanished.
Persons now living rarely conceive of themselves as a part of historyand seldom make provisions for the perpetuation of examples and data oftheir era. Although most of the carriages that once crowded the roadshave disappeared, some fine examples still exist in America on largeestates in hay-filled barns and dusty carriage houses, and it is tobe hoped that these few remaining vehicles will be rescued and placedin museums where they will be preserved for the generations that comeafter us as living mementoes of our past. Even the printed material,old carriage maker’s catalogues, plans, illustrated magazines,scrapbooks, wall charts, technical and account books—once present inevery carriage maker’s shop, has all but disappeared. This materialis of great value to the researcher, librarian and curator at museumswhich have made provisions for its preservation. Persons owning anyof these documents would be performing an act of public service inoffering this material to museums, libraries or historical societies sothat it too can be kept intact.
The collection of vehicles at the Shelburne Museum contains thesleighs and carriages, light and heavy, formerly owned by the lateDr. and Mrs. W. Seward Webb; also those given by Mrs. Richard V. N.Gambrill in memory of her husband; gifts of single carriages or sleighsfrom interested donors; and purchases made to secure representativevehicles. Illustrated in this pamphlet, which is the first of theShelburne Museum series, are examples of many of the carriage typeson display. A complete listing of the other carriages will be foundon page 65. A later publication will depict and describe the farm andcommercial wagons, as well as the fine collection of sleighs.
“Setting up” a fine carriage in the last century was quite differentfrom purchasing a fine automobile today. Considerable knowledge wasrequired as to style of harness, liveries, purpose, details andcustoms. The description of one of the most costly late 19th centurystables here in the United States reads like a tale from the Arabiannights. The town coach barn of this owner contained a coach, abrougham, a hansom, a runabout and an opera wagon, but the carriagehouse at his country estate was awe-inspiring. It sheltered[iv] dozensof vehicles of every sort, and a corps of stablemen was employedto maintain these vehicles in first class condition. In 1905 thiscollection was broken up and auctioned off to the hundreds who cameand went during the days of the sale. Newspaper accounts of the daysaid that they were bewil