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October 23, 2009

CW partners with Carriage Association of America for Second Annual International Carriage Symposium

Highways and Horses: Travel and Transport by Horse-drawn Vehicles is the topic of the second annual International Carriage Symposium Jan. 27-30, 2010, at the Williamsburg Lodge. The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and the Carriage Association of America (CAA) co-sponsor this symposium.

The program consists of national and international speakers. Richard Nicoll, Colonial Williamsburg’s Bill and Jean Lane Director of Coach and Livestock, will lecture on “Travel by Horse-drawn Vehicles in 18th-century North America.”
Additional speakers include:

  • Richard James (England), “News Travels Fast: The Trafalgar Dispatch”;
  • William B. Bushong (United States), “Presidential Travel and the White House Stables”;
  • Merri MacIntyre Ferrell (United States) – “Knickerbocker Sport: The New York Coaching Club and the Gilded Age”;
  • Andres Furger (Switzerland), “The Advent of Swiss Traveling Carriages and Coaches”;
  • Maria Stolk (The Netherlands), “The Professional Restoration of Historic Carriages and Coaches”;
  • Kenneth Wheeling (United States), “Creating an American Icon: Abbot-Downing and the Concord Coach”;
  • Astrid Tydén-Jordan (Sweden), “French Elegance Along the Baltic: Carriages of 18th- and 19th-century Sweden”;
  • Deborah Tranter (Australia), “Coaching Down Under: Freeman Cobb and His Legacy”;
  • Monica Kurzel-Runtscheiner (Austria), “The Princes of Thurn and Taxis: Imperial Postmasters’ Carriages”;
  • Nicolass W. Conijn (The Netherlands), “Outward Show: The Turnout as a Means of Communication”;
  • Michael Sanborn (United States), “Phineas Banning: Southern California Freighting and Stagecoach Empire”;
  • John Ford (England), “John Palmer and the Mail Coach Revolution”; and
  • Lt. Gen. Mertil Melin, (Sweden), “His Majesty’s Ceremonial: Royal Travel in the 21st Century.”

    Symposium attendees will have the opportunity to tour Colonial Williamsburg’s stables and the Historic Trade shops, as well as view the carriage collection.

    For more than 50 years, guests of Colonial Williamsburg have enjoyed touring Duke of Gloucester Street as passengers on one of the Foundation’s horse-drawn coaches. The Foundation’s coach and livestock program has been operating these unique tours continuously since 1947. Today, more than 50,000 guests embark on the 15- or 30-minute journey through Colonial Williamsburg annually.

    Of the Foundation’s 10 carriages, seven are reserved for the use of guests and visiting dignitaries, while the rest serve as interpretive vehicles for reenactments and special programming.

    The Carriage Association of America (CAA) was founded in 1960 and is the oldest and largest international organization devoted to the preservation and restoration of horse-drawn carriages. The symposium is open to the public. For more information or reservations, contact the CAA at (859) 231-0971 or at info@caaonline.com.
    Registration for the symposium is $295 before Jan. 1, 2010, and $325 after Jan. 1, 2010. Guests also can register for the daily fee of $95 per person per day. To register, visit www.caaonline.com or write CAA , 3915 Jay Trump Road, Lexington, Ky. For more information, call the CAA at 859-231-0971.

    Special hotel rates are available at the Williamsburg Lodge and at the Williamsburg Inn for CAA symposium registrants. Hotel rates are for single or double occupancy, per night and do not include applicable taxes. For room reservations call Colonial Williamsburg’s Call Center at 1-800-261-9530, Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

    Established in 1926, the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation is the not-for-profit educational institution that preserves and operates the restored 18th-century Revolutionary capital of Virginia as a town-sized living history museum, telling the inspirational stories of our nation’s founding men and women. Williamsburg is located in Virginia’s Tidewater region, 20 minutes from Newport News, within an hour’s drive of Richmond and Norfolk, and 150 miles south of Washington, D.C., off Interstate 64. For more information about Colonial Williamsburg, call 1-800-HISTORY or visit Colonial Williamsburg’s Web site at www.history.org.

    Media Contact:
    Penna Rogers
    (757) 220-7121



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