Horse-drawn delivery vehicles get the attention they fully deserve at the Thrasher Carriage Museum in Frostburg, Maryland. I know…I know. Sometimes I stay up late at night worried there are not enough museums about this subject. Thank god someone like Mr. James Thrasher had the foresight to begin collecting them before they all disappeared. The guy always loved horses so after WWII he started collecting, restoring and driving the hundreds of carriages that made up his private collection. In 1975, he began showing them to the public in an old school until his death in 1987. Luckily, the local government bought the collection from his family, keeping it intact, and opened a museum in a renovated 19th century warehouse in 1991. Every walk of life is on display from the milkman to the wealthy with pleasure vehicles, funeral wagons, sleighs, and carts. There are also accessories of early travel, like hitches, saddles, bearskin lap robes, charcoal foot warmers and lanterns. And docents dress up in Victorian American clothing just so visitors understand the museum is set in the past. God…I hate living history museums! A good docent can tell a story without having to dress up, you know? I remember being told I’d have to dress up as a ladies maid at one of my house museum jobs (in an old mansion outside of Chicago). Thank god that shit didn’t happen or I would have quit that day. I’m not an actress!
Thrasher Carriage Museum in Frostburg, Maryland
