Discover Top Posts Tagged with #children's carousel

Did you hear about the guy who stayed on the merry-go-round for five days? No? It's in the Guinness Book of Whirled Records.

On this day in 1871, William Schneider, an inventor from Davenport, Iowa, was issued the first U.S. patent for the modern merry-go-round.

The inspiration for the carousel dates back to early jousting games played in 12th century Europe and the Middle East, and they have appeared in a variety of forms over the centuries, including hand-cranked models. The first mechanical, steam-powered design was devised by Thomas Bradshaw and debuted in Bolton, England on New Years Day in 1861.

By the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the American carousel market had entered a golden age. Merry-go-round riders had their choice of the elaborate and bejeweled Coney Island style mounts popularized by manufacturers like Charles I. D. Looff, the realistically painted rides of the Dentzel Carousel Company and the Philadelphia Toboggan Company, and the Country Fair styles - often sans saddle - of the C.W. Parker Company and the Allan Herschell Company (fun fact - yours truly lived across the street from the the original Herschell Company factory site, now a museum, while in grad school).

This March, 1942 photograph of a merry-go-round at the Imperial County Fair in El Centro, California was captured by American photojournalist Russell Lee (1903-1986). He captured the moment during a period of time (1936-1943) that he was working for Franklin D. Roosevelt ‘s Farm Security Administration, which had tasked him with documenting the experiences of the diverse demographics of America’s racial groups, ethnicities, and economic classes.

This item is part of the Hagley Library’s Chamber of Commerce of the United States photographs and audiovisual materials, Series II. Nation’s Business photographs (Accession 1993.230.II) collection. To view more materials from this collection online, click here to visit its page in our Digital Archive.