José Luis Mingote Calderón reminds us that postcards figure among the finest documents attesting to rural and urban traditions in Portugal, if their limitations – so often being posed for the photographer, among others – are taken into account. José Luis has been kind enough to send us an extensive bibliography in Spanish on carts… Continue reading Portuguese Carts In Postcards
Blogs
The Goa Chakra Transportation Museum
A moving experience! Goa Chakra is a transportation museum, the first of its kind in India. Conceived, created and curated by Victor Hugo Gomes, it is a place for collection, restoration and documentation of the rich heritage of the wheel. Exhibition galleries display a unique collection of over 70 non-mechanized indigenous carriages, carts, palanquins and… Continue reading The Goa Chakra Transportation Museum
An American Two-wheeled Dump-cart
Two-wheeled dump carts were common in America prior to the Petroleum Era. This one was purchased in the late 1980s at an antique store in Gap, Pennsylvania. The shafts are not original and do not have the typical hardware: a metal staple to which the draft, support, and hold-back straps connect on each side. The axle is made… Continue reading An American Two-wheeled Dump-cart
Presto Changeo! Farmer’s Magic: Summer Wagon To Winter Sled
The Sunny South wagon and bobsled pictured is part of the ‘working collection’ used on a 130-acre historic site operated by the Mercer County Park Commission as a “living history” farm where visitors can learn about the lifestyle, buildings, and crop/livestock operations commonly seen in rural New Jersey (USA), circa 1900. In keeping with… Continue reading Presto Changeo! Farmer’s Magic: Summer Wagon To Winter Sled
A World Tour In The 1900’s
A world tour in photos of carts and draught animals in the early 20th century in the collection of The Henry Ford in Dearborn, Michigan, U.S.A. Glass lantern slide shows a line of oxen and ox carts being walked through the streets of a small Japanese village by men in local clothing. Taken when the… Continue reading A World Tour In The 1900’s
Working Carts, Wagons And Timber-Carts At The Écomusée d’Alsace
A series of photos taken by Cozette Griffin-Kremer of the working carts, wagons and timber-carts at the Écomusée d’Alsace (Alsace Open Air Musuem) Oxdrivers’ Ascension Day Weekend 2019. Cozette Griffin-Kremer, Associate Researcher, CRBC, Brest
Using an upside-down horse collar on cattle
From Island Farm located on Roanoke Island on the coast of North Carolina. Our mutual friend, Ed Schultz, shared some photos with you of our bit-trained ox, Charlie. I realize just how unusual it is to train an ox in this way and how fascinated people are to see or hear of it, particularly folks… Continue reading Using an upside-down horse collar on cattle
Blinders (Blinkers), Location, Polling, and Cattle Breeds
– A conversation with Bob Powell, Barbara Corson and Ed Schultz. This was taken at Whinnyfold, Cruden, Aberdeenshire, Scotland in 1895. It shows Mr Alex Davidson ‘plowing’ with his oxen in harness being driven like horses. He’s actually using a ‘drill’ or ridge plow towards either planting potatoes or sowing turnip seed. The latter is done… Continue reading Blinders (Blinkers), Location, Polling, and Cattle Breeds
French Surjougs – a photo essay
There are many names for this charming complement to cattle draft – surjoug or soubrejoug (both ‘overyoke’), clocher (bell spire), chapelle (chapel) typical of the Pyrenees regions, especially in the central French highlands and foothills, as well as in the Garonne River valleys, right into the 1940s (Hautes-Pyrénées, Gers, Haute-Garonne, Tarn-et-Garonne, Ariège). Hewn out from… Continue reading French Surjougs – a photo essay
Thomas’ hames from Matt Schofield at Genessee Country Village
Thomas is a pretty decent animal and works well for me. The wooden hames that he is wearing were made from ash. Bob Powell sent me a paper pattern of a hame from the Fenland, Cambridgeshire, England. He grew up in that area and has a great love for the working of heavy horses. Since my area… Continue reading Thomas’ hames from Matt Schofield at Genessee Country Village
Mount Vernon Mules at Work
– A Photo Essay. Mount Vernon, First American President George Washington’s historic home at Mount Vernon, Virginia, includes a 4-acre working farm. Washington used Mount Vernon as a laboratory for testing and implementing progressive farming practices and the Pioneer Farm represents the more than 3,000 acres he cultivated during the second half of the 18th century.… Continue reading Mount Vernon Mules at Work
When Cities Expelled Farmers
The Henry Ford opened a reconstructed open-air vegetable shed in its open-air museum, Greenfield Village, in April 2022. At its origins, the Detroit Common Council invested in this structure to facilitate direct sales between growers and customers. It operated as part of Detroit’s City Hall Market (also called Central Market) for thirty years, between April… Continue reading When Cities Expelled Farmers
The COMPA between town and country
The COMPA – Conservatory of Agriculture – was born following a national collection campaign of agricultural machinery begun in 1977. Choice of the future site of the museum was the Eure-et-Loir, an agricultural département [ed. note: administrative area similar to a county], the “granary of France”, located 100 km southwest of Paris. When it was… Continue reading The COMPA between town and country
The farm IN the city – The Dahlem Domain in Berlin
In southwestern Berlin in the middle of a residential neighborhood, there is a spot on the map: the site of the Dahlem Domain, an open-air museum for agriculture and food that includes 10 hectares of Bioland operations, with its motto: From Field to Plate The site of the Dahlem domain – formerly a municipal property,… Continue reading The farm IN the city – The Dahlem Domain in Berlin
Museum Village Volksdorf between “Bauer” and “Bürger” (between Farmers and Townsfolk)
The Museumsdorf Volksdorf (Museum-Village Volksdorf) now lies within Germany’s second-largest city, Hamburg, but it was once a village of typical vernacular architecture and the forest occupations that went with the site. The museum is a few minutes on foot from a direct train-line station and provides the look and feel of a country place with… Continue reading Museum Village Volksdorf between “Bauer” and “Bürger” (between Farmers and Townsfolk)