postaday | The Slower Road

January 20, 2012

where’d the horse’s ears go?

Posted by Jennifer under history | Tags: postaday |
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We’ll start our look through the last of Jack & Marge Day’s photos with an “action shot” of sorts.

This young family appears to be one of several groups leaving a race or a horse show or somesuch. They, and their off-side horse, are holding very still while the photographer works his time-consuming magic. The vehicle behind them and the horse to their left, however, are all moving so much they’ve become blurred … as has our little family’s near-side horse. He moved around so much, in fact, that his legs look fuzzy and someone has had to draw his ears in with a pen.

According to several notations on the back, this photo was taken in Manchester, New Hampshire, circa 1880.

(from the Jack & Marge Day collection)

January 19, 2012

more old photos

Posted by Jennifer under history | Tags: postaday |
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Last week, while we were in Williamsburg, Jack Day gave me another (smaller) stack of fabulous old photos. Starting tomorrow, I’ll post them here, one a day, for the next couple of weeks.

What can you look forward to? More young families showing off the family “car” (horse and buggy) or gathered in front of the house with all their animals; portraits of commercial vehicles, fire-fighting equipment, and sleighs; and more, including a large sled with a remarkably large load of logs.

Stay tuned!

January 18, 2012

just a little off-topic

Posted by Jennifer under Colonial Williamsburg, history | Tags: postaday |
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Are you on Facebook? If you are, you too can “like” the Colonial Williamsburg page. A status update from Colonial Williamsburg just popped onto my FB news feed, and I thought it was really rather interesting, especially since we were just there, exploring the Historica Area and meeting people.

On this website of “behind the scenes” info at Williamsburg, you can listen to or (if you lack speakers) read the transcript of two interviews with the director of their Costume Design Center. There’s a lot of other interesting information there, as well.

P.S.
If you are on Facebook and haven’t yet “liked” the Carriage Association page, you can check us out here.

January 17, 2012

a CAA member’s restoration work

Posted by Jennifer under carriages / carriage types, people | Tags: postaday |
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Are you a member of the Carriage Association of America? If you are, and if you’ve given us your email address, you’ll know that we send out a popular e-newsletter each week. And, if you read the weekly e-news, you’ll know that we like to include newsy tidbits from CAA members.

In response to our standing request for news from association members, Dale Orr (Indiana) sent me an email that had far too many photos for the newsletter. So I thought I’d post them here.

Here’s what Dale had to say, and the photos he sent:

“I am a cabinet maker and a horseman with a keen interest in building and restoring vehicles. One of my recent projects was a Runabout that was originally built by the Atwood Buggy Co., in my hometown of Albion, Indiana, in the 1890s. There was very little left of this buggy, but I had a catalog image and enough left of the box to duplicate the body, and I restored the gear. I drove it once in our hometown parade then donated it to our local history museum.”

“The second piece is an Albany Cutter originally built by the Page Brothers Buggy Co., in Marshall, Michigan. I believe it to have been built sometime around 1876 to 1890. All the striping and art work was very faint, but we were able to trace it onto acetate before restoration began. This sleigh was in very poor condition, and I had to build a new dash and completely disassemble all the wood and metal parts and start over. I reused all the original bolts and screws.”