Summer 2010
http://www.maaa.org/nehotr/Exhibitions/goingplaces.php
Carriages—not cars—once ruled the road. These forerunners of automobiles and trucks were absolutely essential to American life in the 1800s. Carriages came in an amazing assortment of sizes, shapes and finishes, from the buckboard phaeton to the sidebar buggy to the booby hut. Going Places explores the culture, evolution, and eventual demise of horse-drawn transportation, from the early nineteenth century, through the industrial revolution, and into the 1900s and the dawn of the automobile age. Along the way, diverse artifacts–including a full-sized carriage, children's carriages, and assorted harnesses and tack–speak volumes about our insatiable desire for travel, speed, and new technology. The exhibition also covers a broad range of questions: How were carriages made and repaired? Where were they sold, and who could afford them? How were carriages used? The answers are surprising, and frequent parallels to today's car culture make Going Places a fascinating journey. This exhibit was organized by The Long Island Museum of American Art, History and Carriages and is a program of “NEH on the Road,” a program of the National Endowment for the Humanities and Mid-America Arts Alliance, a private, nonprofit service organization.