A guide to interpreting horse-drawn carriages in museum collections

Horse-drawn carriages are found in museum collections across the country. As moving objects in static displays they are often difficult to interpret. This guide brings together best practice in the interpretation of carriages to help museums bring them to life. It was written by museum interpretation consultant Steve Slack, in collaboration with professionals from across the museum sector working with carriage collections. This guide was commissioned by Staffordshire Archives and Heritage and funded by Arts Council England. A guide to interpreting horse-drawn carriages in museum collections

Historic horse-drawn carriages are complex and delicate objects. The County Museum Service would normally employ specialist conservators to repair and restore textiles, paint, leather, wood and metalwork. However, any cleaning and general maintenance is carried out in-house. This short video, commissioned by the Marches Network in 2014, shows how we care for the carriages in our collection. Length of video: 6 minutes.

 

Students from South Staffordshire College have produced content for this website in response to visiting the carriage collection and a brief from the Museum Service. This provided students with the opportunity to work on a live brief with a professional client. In the process of developing creative content to be displayed on the public website, the students decided that they wanted to attract a younger audience and this is reflected in their choice of media.

Carriage to Car by Alex Flynn and Jacob Webster