When I returned to the Washington DC area, the most recurrent station of my youth, I was thrilled to find the painstaking restoration of the carousel at Glen Echo Park nearly complete. I'd last seen it on my tenth birthday, in 1962, with seven friends and a hired teenage cowboy named Jimmy.
That was the year after the park opened to people of color. Divinity student Lawrence Henry had lead a group of students in a series of peaceful protests around the DC area in the summer of 1960, including a sit-in on the carousel in Glen Echo, which led to their arrest. For ten weeks, the surrounding community joined with the students outside of Glen Echo to protest until the park owners opened the park without restrictions the following year. The students were convicted, but the conviction was overturned by a higher court.
I know my love of carousels dates back to this one at Glen Echo and to that awesome birthday celebration. I especially love Gustav Dentzel's menagerie carousels, with big-eared rabbits and ornate lions and long-legged ostriches and friendly giraffes. This leaping stag came from the Dentzel workshop in 1921, 20 years or so after art and sculpture student Daniel Carl Muller first created the model. The facial expressions varied among his deer carvings, but the pose and position were always the same: an outside row prancer. I love that Dentzel always used real antlers.
Nice post! This is a very nice blog that I will definitively come back to more times this year! Thanks for informative post. visit here kola daisi university cut off mark for microbiology
ReplyDeleteYou're one of the best, I have found more joy in surfing guestbook. It’s nice and great work. Thank you so much for sharing. visit here evangel university departmental cut off mark
ReplyDeleteThis absolutely amazing, you got true and fresh information posted here, really found it useful, thanks for posting and the effort! Please keep sharing more of such blog. lead city university cut off mark for biochemistry
ReplyDelete