Carousel of Friendship

Community Day Presentation Margaret Franklin

Welcome to the Carousel of Friendship

Please do not get on or off until the ride has come to a complete stop. Thank you and have a wonderful time! My name is Margaret Franklin and I have Asperger's Syndrome. I also have a lifelong interest in carousels. It has been my dream for as long as I can remember to create one of my own for the public to enjoy. My idea for the Autism Awareness Carousel became public in November of 2008, combining my two major interests in life, carousels and helping to educate the public about people on the autism spectrum and create a project to improve the quality of the lives of everyone involved. In the fall of 2010 I decided to change the name of my project to The Carousel of Friendship because: A. Not everyone on the autism spectrum is interested in carousels B. Participants don't have to have autism to participate. Even though people on the autism spectrum have been the driving force and inspiration to this project, The Carousel of Friendship is open and welcome to everyone, regardless of age or ability. It is a community project that invites the neighbourhood, and in fact even the whole world, to share their creative talents.

The History of Carousels

Nobody really knows for sure when the first carousel was actually invented. Byzantine cave paintings reveal pictures of people in early spinning bucket rides. But it was during the reign of King Louis in France during the 1700's that the carousel caught on as a piece of training equipment for the knights in their equestrian events. The name carousel comes from the word carousello which is Spanish for Little War. During the event of Carousel riders would ride at high speeds toward each other and throw hollow clay balls filled with perfume. The idea was to catch the ball carefully as not to get splattered. The sport then evolved to allow riders to use a sword or a lance to spear a suspended ring. Revolving platforms with crude wooden horses started popping up everywhere so both the wealthy and eventually commoners could take part in this sport.

Early carousels were usually pushed by a servant. Then the hand-cranked mechanism was

invented:

Then they were powered by a horse or mule:

When Fredrick Savage invented a new kind of steam engine, carousels could be even bigger and better, and soon Mangels invented the Jumping Mechanism to enable the horses to go up and down.

There are three basic types of carousel animals on most North American carousels:

Standers have at least three feet on the ground, prancers stand on their hind feet and jumpers are the ones that go up and down. Some European carousels also have rocking horses:

By the way most carousels here in North America go counter-clockwise and British ones go clockwise.

Types of Carousel Art

There are three basic styles of carousel art when it comes to North American carousels; Coney Island, Philadelphia and County Fair

Coney Island: Includes artists M.C. Illions, Charles I.D. Looff Stein & Goldstein and Charles Carmel Glitzy, flamboyant details such as gold leaf manes, lots of jewels: (Below:) Port Dalhousie: Kremer's mechanism with early Looff and Illions horses.

(Below:) Knoebel's Grove Kremer's with Carmel horses

(Below) Riverfront Park, Spokane Washington, later Looff horses

Philadelphia Style Includes artists Gustav and William Dentzel, Daniel and Alfred Muller, Philadelphia Toboggan Company (PTC) More realistic, fewer jewels (Below:) Salvatore Cernigliaro menagerie figures on the Dentzel carousel at Centre Island

(Below) Rare stationary Dentzel carousel at Weona Park, Pennsylvania

(Below) Frederick Freid's favorite Dentzel carousel at the Please Touch Museum

(Below) Daniel Muller carousel at Cedar Point:

(Below) Philadelphia Toboggan Company #6, Kit Carson Fairgrounds, Burlington, CO

(Below) PTC#51 Elitch Gardens, Denver ,CO

(Below:) PTC #47Hershey Park, Hershey, PA

County Fair Style Includes artists Allan Hershell, Charles Dare, C.W Parker Less realistic, simpler details, compact, made to travel (Below) Millville Park, PA, Allan Herschell

(Below) Roseneath Fairgrounds 1906 C.W Parker from the Abilene factory

(Below) Menlo Park, Perkasie PA, 1930's aluminum Allan Herschell

Track Machines
County fair carousels also include another category known as track machines. A carousel with a track mechanism, instead of having the horses going up and down on poles, creates a rocking motion from under the platform. In most cases the horses are mounted on sweeps, but the Over-the Jumps in Little Rock Arkansas has its horses rolling along on an undulating switchback track similar to the Music Express ride (Below) Traditional track machines in Greenville (left) and Perryville) right:

(Below) Over-the-Jumps, Little Rock Arkansas:

Only 3 or 4 of this type of ride were ever built and this is the only one that still exists. In my opinion it is one of the BEST RIDES EVER!!!!!

Modern Community Carousels

Missoula Montana:

Helena, Montana:

Spirit of Columbia Gardens, Butte, Montana

Lester

Pottstown, PA

My Own Project
Since embarking on this magical journey I've been interviewed on TV on Rogers Mid Day... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGSDBcDOk94 I've displayed my art at the NCA technical conference in Sandusky and sold several of my craft items at Wind Reach Farms:

And in more recent years I've started creating quilts. Here is my first one: http://www.scribd.com/Margaret%20Franklin/d/30062160-Carousel-Quilt-Project Dee-Dee was the inspiration for the shoes I decorated for my Marketing project:

And the Gas Sign Horse designed by my friend Janette Tansley, saw the light of day in the following incarnation:

From this................................................................To THIS!!!!!

I bought this horse about 20 years ago but over the Christmas holidays I decided to make it look like Janette's horse, even though the pose may be different. Here's my second quilt, with many thanks to Harris Spencer Anderson and all the students on Peaceman Jim Kogelheide's school bus: http://www.scribd.com/Margaret%20Franklin/d/47386643-New-Peace-Quilt The True Blue quilt showcases the classic works of Master Carvers combined with the inspiration of Delft blue Dutch pottery: http://www.scribd.com/Margaret%20Franklin/d/58667727-True-Blue-Who-s-Who And last but not least, here's my most recent quilt: http://www.scribd.com/Margaret%20Franklin/d/80983469-Community-QUilt This year in school I have also created a miniature carousel with horses decorated with Fibonacci numbers. Here it is in action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GutZhsADYW4

And here are the actual horses themselves:

Look closely and you'll see that the last horse is decorated with all the previous ones!

A group in Pakistan, SATH have also teamed up with me on this project:

Last but not least, no report about my interest in carousel art would be complete without a picture of my wedding dress!!!