The Learning & Visitor Experience department endeavors to provide high-quality interpretive opportunities for our visitors, whether it be an immersive tour of Clayton, the historic home of the Frick family, or an exploration of the works and themes of the latest exhibition in the art museum. It is both challenging and exciting to develop a new touring opportunity from the beginning, and we have done just this as we launch our new public tours of the Car and Carriage Museum.
Beginning Tuesday, June 4, 2019, the new tours will take place on Tuesdays at 1:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m., and Saturdays and Sundays at 11:00 a.m., 1:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m., and last for 45 minutes to an hour. Like the Car and Carriage Museum itself, the tours are free and open to the public. Reservations are not necessary, so just drop by and join us!
The collection in the Car and Carriage Museum is important and interesting, and worth your time to explore. Although labels and text panels in the museum provide rich contextual information, it can be challenging to understand the broader historical significance of a transportation collection. This new tour was created to be a fun, engaging look at the vehicles and the stories they tell both individually and together. What’s the difference between a formal and informal carriage? Were there really hundreds of automobile manufacturers in the early 20th century? Steam and electric cars were strong rivals of early gas-powered vehicles? And what on earth is livery?
In order to create this new touring opportunity, a new group of interpreters, or docents, was hired and spent several weeks in intensive training with Kim Cady, Assistant Curator, Car and Carriage Museum, and members of the Learning & Visitor Experience staff. They studied each vehicle along with the broader themes of the collection, and worked on engagement and storytelling strategies. Our goal of presenting accurate information in engaging, visitor-centered ways has resulted in a new tour that we hope enriches the Frick experience for everyone.
Please join us for new Car and Carriage Museum tour—I would love to hear your thoughts and feedback! If you are interested in learning even more about the fascinating transportation transition time in history that our collection represents, join us for a talk by Dr. Thomas Kinney on September 8 titled “Motion in Transition: An Inside Look at the Shift from Carriages to Automobiles." Tickets for this program can be purchased here.
Learn More about the Car and Carriage Museum
The collection in the Car and Carriage Museum is important and interesting, and worth your time to explore. Although labels and text panels in the museum provide rich contextual information, it can be challenging to understand the broader historical significance of a transportation collection. This new tour was created to be a fun, engaging look at the vehicles and the stories they tell both individually and together. What’s the difference between a formal and informal carriage? Were there really hundreds of automobile manufacturers in the early 20th century? Steam and electric cars were strong rivals of early gas-powered vehicles? And what on earth is livery?
In order to create this new touring opportunity, a new group of interpreters, or docents, was hired and spent several weeks in intensive training with Kim Cady, Assistant Curator, Car and Carriage Museum, and members of the Learning & Visitor Experience staff. They studied each vehicle along with the broader themes of the collection, and worked on engagement and storytelling strategies. Our goal of presenting accurate information in engaging, visitor-centered ways has resulted in a new tour that we hope enriches the Frick experience for everyone.
Please join us for new Car and Carriage Museum tour—I would love to hear your thoughts and feedback! If you are interested in learning even more about the fascinating transportation transition time in history that our collection represents, join us for a talk by Dr. Thomas Kinney on September 8 titled “Motion in Transition: An Inside Look at the Shift from Carriages to Automobiles." Tickets for this program can be purchased here.
Learn More about the Car and Carriage Museum