Horse Drawn Vehicle Project
Project: Horse Drawn Vehicle Project - The Henry Ford Museum
Employment: 2020 - 2021
Conservation Coordinator: Mary Fahey - Chief Conservator
Project Support: Hagler Fund
Treatment Trajectory:
Various carriages in the collection required condition audits and treatment to remain stable in storage. Each carriage was generally composed of wood, painted surfaces, textile cushions, metal alloys, glass, and leather components. The complexity of the composite artifacts required a specific understanding of carriage design and which methods effectively aid in preventing further degradation.
Click Image for details of wagonette break carriage treatment:
Fact Sheet:
The museum is often contacted by other museum professionals and institutions inquiring about care and preservation practices. To make this information more readily available, it was decided that an online fact sheet be made for the Henry Ford Museum website.
Through discussions with other conservators and my own experience, I created a preservation fact sheet to help guide other museum professionals in the general care, storage, and handling of horse-drawn vehicles in their own collections.
The fact sheet encompasses the anatomy, material composition, and the types of damages seen on carriage components, as well as proper cleaning, storage, and handling of these items in a museum environment.
Diagrams and Research:
Using other existing carriage diagrams, I drew and created a detailed carriage diagram that encompasses all the information I had acquired. The diagram broadly applies to multiple types of carriages dating to the late 19th Century, though it should be noted that depending on their function, certain horse-drawn vehicles may have different parts and features that may not be included in this particular image. By knowing the terminology of these objects and how they are composed, those caring for these items can be better informed on necessary treatments, storage, and handling practices to elongate their lives.
Horse Drawn Vehicle Fact Sheet: