From the Executive Director's Desk
It has been a month of changes and getting up to speed here at the Amesbury Carriage Museum. We are focused on pivoting from building our program venue- The Industrial History Center- to filling our calendar with programming that champions the history of Amesbury industry and people. It was this pivot that got me thinking about how we change, evolve, and overcome.
The Horseless Age, November 14th, 1900, Collection of The Amesbury Carriage Museum, photo by K. Daniell, 2022.
Maybe it was also because I kept walking past a copy of the early automobile industry journal The Horseless Age, which ran from 1895 until 1918. The title struck me as both funny and thought provoking.
When the production of automobiles began to overtake that of carriages, the carriage makers of Amesbury must have thought, have we entered a new age of travel? Are we now in the horseless age? This phrase must have caught on enough for an entire trade catalog to be built around it.
Change can be exciting, but it can also be scary. The change from carriage making to the production of auto bodies would have seemed like a momentous (and perhaps insurmountable) task. The Amesbury carriage makers may have wondered if they could make that pivot…and be successful at it.
Those carriage builders who did choose to enter the automotive industry realized that they already had the care of craftsmanship and mastery of materials needed to build a horseless carriage. They just needed a little bit of vision and the willingness to make changes. By the 1920s, Amesbury was the center of custom automobile making in the eastern United States.
As we get our own wheels turning here at the ACM, perhaps we can take some inspiration from the carriage makers who pivoted from where they were comfortable, to an unknown and exciting new age. The ACM team certainly already has the craftsmanship and the mastery of materials needed to build a full and engaging calendar of programs that ignite the industrious spirit of our Amesbury community.
Most sincerely,
Kelly Daniell, Executive Director
kdaniell@amesburycarriagemuseum.org
978.834.5058