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History

History of Carousels

Medieval crusaders brought back to Italy a game played on horseback called carousel, meaning "little war".  Little clay balls filled with scented water were tossed from rider to rider and no one wanted to miss the catch.

The finest American carousels were built from 1880-1930. Three distinctive styles of horses developed. The Coney Island, the Philadelphia, and the Country Fair.

The Coney Island was a flamboyant, highly animated horse.  These were from the Coney Island Park on New York City's waterfront. The designers and carvers perfecting this style were Charles Looff, Charles Carmel, Stein & Goldstein, and Marcus Illions.

The Philadelphia style is more realistic with the horses looking like real horses and usually carrying military style trappings. This style grew out of the ideas of carver Gustav Dentzel, Daniel Muller, and the carver of the Philadelphia Toboggan Company.

The Country Fair style originated in Kansas at the C. W. Parker factory and in upstate New York at the Hersehell/Spillman Company. There were created to meet the growing popularity of traveling carnivals and were build for durability and mobility.

On American and European carousel the horses face and rotate in a counterclockwise manner, while on English carousels the horses face and rotate clockwise. The side of the horse facing out, away from the hub of the carousel, is called the "romance" side and is usually the most detailed. The horses on the outside row often have more extra details, such as eagles, flags, griffins, cherubs, than the smaller horses on the inside rows.

Each carousel will have a "lead" horse that usually has a flag on it. The "lead" horse will be on the outer row. When a carousel includes animals besides horses these are called menagerie animals and have included cats, tigers, ostriches, lions, sea dragons or hippocampus and other sea monsters, camels, pigs, rabbits, dogs, deer, bears, giraffes, goats, bison, burros, and many more. A carousel that contains of mostly menagerie animals is considered a merry-go-round.

Fried, Frederick. A Pictorial History of the Carousel. Bonanza Books, 1964. Manns, William. "Collecting Carousel Art" from Painted Ponies 1992 Calendar. Zon International Publishing, 1991. Manns, William. Painted Ponies, Zon International Publishing, 1990.
***Special thanks to and in memory of Demaris Koontz for her hard work on researching and preparing this useful information***

International Museum of Carousel Art
History

Wikipedia
About Carousels