Abbreviation | CAA |
---|---|
Formation | 1960 |
Type | Nonprofit |
Purpose | Promotion of the preservation and restoration of horse-drawn carriages and sleighs |
Headquarters | 4075 Iron Works Parkway (Building D), Lexington, KY 40511 |
Coordinates | 38°09′N84°31′W / 38.150°N 84.517°W |
Services | Memberships, demonstrations, seminars, symposia, competitions, carriage museum tours, research archives |
Publication | The Carriage Journal |
Affiliations | Chapter driving clubs (60 in 2023) [1] |
Website | carriageassociationofamerica |
The Carriage Association of America (CAA) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the history and traditions of carriage driving, and the preservation and restoration of horse-drawn carriages and sleighs. It is headquartered at the Kentucky Horse Park along with its sister organization, the Carriage Museum of America (CMA).
CAA is a membership organization for those interested in carriages and horse-drawn vehicles. The CAA maintains directories of carriage collections, carriage museums, museums with carriage collections, and driving and carriage clubs. They organize tours, driving events, educational seminars, and symposia. Since 1963 the association has published the magazine The Carriage Journal approximately five times a year. They maintain a video library on driving, training, carriages, horses, and related events. [2] [3]
CMA was started in 1978 as a nonprofit educational institution. As of 2023, the organization functioned as a non-circulating research library, preserving the history of the carriage era and serving as an authoritative resource about animal-drawn vehicles. They maintained a collection of around 1,500 historic and contemporary books, periodicals, trade journals, collections of photographs, carriage company catalogs, carriage blueprints, and business records. The CMA maintained a carriage collection of rare and unusual vehicles, preserved in original condition for research purposes, but which were not on display. [4]
CMA published many books, historical and contemporary. For example, its book Conservation and Restoration of Horse-Drawn Vehicles (2007) is a practical manual that covers such subjects as varnishes, wheels, upholstery, and tools for restoring or conserving "irreplaceable historical artifacts". [5]
CMA had been operating as a sister organization to CAA, operating out of the same building and with the same personnel. In 2022, the Carriage Association of America Foundation (CAAF) was created to be a 509(a)(3) supporting organization for CAA, and to receive the assets of the CMA. CMA's library and research programs were transferred to CAA. [6]
With the advent of the automobile, private carriage driving declined and driving clubs closed down. Though some pleasure driving continued at the National Horse Show, World War II effectively marked the end of carriage driving. [7] Mrs. Lilian Baker Carlisle, who worked with the carriage collection at Shelburne Museum, had contacted Ward Melville, a collector who started the Long Island Museum of American Art, History, and Carriages about forming an organization for collectors and enthusiasts. [8] In 1960, Melville invited twelve other carriage collectors to meet in New York, and the Carriage Association of America was founded "to save what relics remained of the horse-drawn era" and "to preserve the techniques of driving and the proper use of horses in harness". [7] Melville was named pro tem president, and in 1962 CAA incorporated with Sidney Lathem elected as president. [9]
Early CAA publications included The Jung Carriage Lamp and The Coachman's Horn. The Carriage Journal was first published in 1963 as a quarterly magazine and remains the CAA's journal today. [8] The first CAA offices were in Maine, later at John Seabrook's farm in New Jersey, and in 2005 moved to the Kentucky Horse Park. [9]
A cart or dray is a vehicle designed for transport, using two wheels and normally pulled by draught animals such as horses, donkeys, mules and oxen, or even smaller animals such as goats or large dogs.
A carriage is a two- or four-wheeled horse-drawn vehicle for passengers. Second-hand private carriages were common public transport, the equivalent of modern cars used as taxis. Carriage suspensions are by leather strapping or, on those made in recent centuries, steel springs. Two-wheeled carriages are usually owner-driven.
A wagon or waggon is a heavy four-wheeled vehicle pulled by draught animals or on occasion by humans, used for transporting goods, commodities, agricultural materials, supplies and sometimes people.
The hansom cab is a kind of horse-drawn carriage designed and patented in 1834 by Joseph Hansom, an architect from York. The vehicle was developed and tested by Hansom in Hinckley, Leicestershire, England. Originally called the Hansom safety cab, it was designed to combine speed with safety, with a low centre of gravity for safe cornering. Hansom's original design was modified by John Chapman and several others to improve its practicability, but retained Hansom's name.
A buggy refers to a lightweight four-wheeled carriage drawn by a single horse, though occasionally by two. Amish buggies are still regularly in use on the roadways of America. The word "buggy" has become a generic term for "carriage" in America.
A phaeton was a form of sporty open carriage popular in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. Drawn by one or two horses, a phaeton typically featured a minimal very lightly sprung body atop four extravagantly large wheels. With open seating, it was both fast and dangerous, giving rise to its name, drawn from the mythical Phaëthon, son of Helios, who nearly set the Earth on fire while attempting to drive the chariot of the Sun.
A brougham is a 19th century four-wheeled carriage drawn by a single horse. It was named after the politician and jurist Lord Brougham, who had this type of carriage built to his specification by London coachbuilder Robinson & Cook in 1838.
A gig is a light, two-wheeled open carriage with large wheels, a forward facing seat, and shafts for a single horse. The gig's body is constructed above the shafts, and it is entered from step-irons hanging from the shaft in front of the wheels. Gigs are enclosed at the back, and have luggage space under the cross-seat. Early gigs were crude and unsprung; later gigs were elegant for town driving and were constructed with springs. The term "gig" is short for "whirligig".
A horse-drawn vehicle is a piece of equipment pulled by one or more horses. These vehicles typically have two or four wheels and were used to carry passengers or a load. They were once common worldwide, but they have mostly been replaced by automobiles and other forms of self-propelled transport but are still in use today.
A postilion or postillion is a person who guides a horse-drawn coach or post chaise while mounted on the horse or one of a pair of horses. By contrast, a coachman controls the horses from the vehicle itself.
Larz Anderson Auto Museum is located in the Anderson Carriage House on the grounds of Larz Anderson Park in Brookline, Massachusetts and is the oldest collection of motorcars in the United States.
The College Art Association of America (CAA) is the principal organization in the United States for professionals in the visual arts, from students to art historians to emeritus faculty. Founded in 1911, it "promotes these arts and their understanding through advocacy, intellectual engagement, and a commitment to the diversity of practices and practitioners." CAA currently has individual members across the United States and internationally; and institutional members, such as libraries, academic departments, and museums located in the United States. The organization's programs, standards and guidelines, advocacy, intellectual engagement, and commitment to the diversity of practices and practitioners, align with its broad and diverse membership.
A coach is a large, closed, four-wheeled, passenger-carrying vehicle or carriage usually drawn by two or more horses controlled by a coachman, a postilion, or both. A coach has doors in its sides and a front and a back seat inside. The driver has a raised seat in front of the carriage to allow better vision. It is often called a box, box seat, or coach box. There are many types of coaches depending on the vehicle's purpose.
A trap, pony trap or horse trap is a light, often sporty, two-wheeled or sometimes four-wheeled horse- or pony-drawn carriage, usually accommodating two to four persons in various seating arrangements, such as face-to-face or back-to-back. In the eighteenth century, the first carriage to be called a trap was a gig with a hinged trap door, under which was a place to carry a dog. In late nineteenth century USA, four-wheeled dog carts with convertible seats also started to become known as traps.
A runabout is an American light, open, horse-drawn vehicle with four large wheels that predated the runabout car.
The Remington Carriage Museum is located in Cardston, Alberta, Canada. Opened in 1993, and the largest of its kind in the world, the Remington Carriage Museum displays more than 240 carriages.
The Horseshoe Barn and Horseshoe Barn Annex are two exhibit buildings located at Shelburne Museum in Shelburne, Vermont. Both buildings exhibit a variety of horse-drawn vehicles, including carriages, trade wagons, stagecoaches, and sleighs.
The Long Island Museum of American Art, History, and Carriages, known as the Long Island Museum (LIM), is a nine-acre museum located in Stony Brook, New York. The LIM serves the Long Island community by preserving and displaying its collection of art, historical artifacts, and carriages; providing educational and public programming; and collaborating with a variety of other arts and cultural organizations.
The Concord coach was an American horse-drawn coach, often used as stagecoaches, mailcoaches, and hotel coaches. The term was first used for the coaches built by coach-builder J. Stephen Abbot and wheelwright Lewis Downing of the Abbot-Downing Company in Concord, New Hampshire, but later to be sometimes used generically. Like their predecessors, the Concords employed a style of suspension and construction particularly suited to North America's early 19th century roads. Leather thoroughbraces suspend passengers who are in constant motion while the coach is moving. The swaying is accepted by passengers for the shock absorbing action of the leather straps and for the way the special motion eases the coach over very rough patches of roadway. This suspension, which was developed by Philip de Chiese in the 17th century, was long replaced by steel springs in England.
A state coach, also known as a gala coach, is a highly decorative ceremonial coach used in Europe by a monarch or head of state on state occasions. A four-wheeled vehicle for four passengers, it may be drawn at a walk by six or more horses with postilions, or be driven by two or more horses. The term is also used to indicate a formal town coach used by nobility and the wealthy for formal occasions, drawn by a pair of matching horses.
Formed in 1960 and by 1973 had over 1,200 members scattered all over America, Canada and various parts of the world. The Association is responsible for the quarterly publication of The Carriage Journal. Every year a conference is held in a different part of America when members get together to hear experts speak on a variety of subjects ranging from the restoration of carriages to dressage driving.