Jeanne Marie Carley, author of “The Folk Art of Cape Cod,” by Schiffer Publishing Co., says that the hard-working people of the 1700s and 1800s, though often facing harsh times, “left us a legacy of treasures including schoolgirl samplers, wooden decoys, whirligigs, weathervanes and many portraits of sea captains, their wives and children done by itinerant artisan-painters.”
What started out as a course to learn about their new community in Chatham, Mass., has become a coffee-table book of over 550 color plates that weaves in the history of Rhode Island carousels and textile mills.
Carley embarked on the folk art journey after deciding to move to the Cape with her husband, William M. Carley, following his retirement as a senior investigative writer at The Wall Street Journal. Her own background in personal genealogy includes writing and editing articles for various genealogical societies, including Je Me Souviens, the American-French Genealogical Society in Pawtucket.
Through her research, Carley became intrigued by early religious art done by a drifter who was said to have been disowned by a wealthy family. His simplicity of style showed somber images of the Virgin and Child, perhaps reflective of the faces he saw in his travels. “We should remember that the people portrayed in the book often led tragic lives with frequent death at sea for men and often during childbirth for young women. Many of their children had a brief lifespan,” Carley said.
Heirloom quilts often revealed stories of family history, and these became ever more colorful when Samuel Slater opened the first cotton mill in Pawtucket in 1793, providing easier access to fabrics.
If colorful quilts of the era had any visual competition, it was in the form of fanciful hand-carved, hand-painted horses designed for merry-go-rounds.
“Opinions vary about whether carousel animals are actually folk art since many of these carvers had trained as wood sculpture apprentices and their animals were primarily made for commercial use,” says Carley. “Nonetheless, the lively Victorian-age carousel contributed to the roots of our national heritage aesthetically and culturally, whether in an amusement park or city park, a seashore resort, a circus, a country fair or traveling carnival.”
Carley noted that “carousels combined the immigrant experience, European-born skilled wood-carvers, and organ-builders, popular entertainment, creation of a new national enterprise. All of these elements merged to create a memorable American epoch centered on the shared and simple joy of whirling around on the flying horses.”
By the 1800s this tiny state of Rhode Island could boast of two prize carousels that brought magical moments to young and old alike. While only about 275 of the more than 3,000 antique carousels still exist, “The Flying Horse Carousel” in Watch Hill is considered one of the oldest designed by Charles Dane.
Carley says of Dane’s designs: “His graceful, gentler and less decorative animals are more characteristic of folk art than those sculpted by the classically trained European artisans in other workshops. The 20-horse ride in Watch Hill was the 1867 prototype that used suspended chains rather than a platform and the outer-row horses have extended forelegs, giving the appearance of flight.”
She added that although the carousel was “abandoned in Watch Hill in 1883 by a traveling circus, buried in the sand in the devastating 1938 hurricane, it was eventually restored and motorized.”
Today it has landmark status, as does the carousel built in 1895 by Charles I.D. Looff at Crescent Park in Riverside, which is called “the jewel of Rhode Island.” Carley said, “He even carved a carousel of 54 animals as a wedding present for his daughter Emma Looff Vogel.”
Children and adults alike are mesmerized by merry-go-round magic. Riding the carousel, our ancestors were transported to moments bordering on a whirling spiritual high. Even today we can tangibly connect with our past by hugging the stallions, listening to the organ, and feeling the wind against our faces.
There is a sense of awe bordering on spirituality when we think of our heritage. Through folk art we see how our ancestors brought to this new country their ideas, creativity, and inventiveness. Sitting on a carousel we come in touch with ancestors who found laughter on the painted stallions despite toiling to turn this land of ours into the state we call home.
To view photos: Rita Watson: Art connects us to time and place – Providence Journal
Copyright 2013 Rita Watson/ All Rights Reserved
Rita Watson (www.ritawatson.com) is a Providence Journal columnist, who has written “A Serenity Journal: 52 Weeks of Prayer and Gratitude”.