Editorial of January 4, 2024

Let’s Go for a Ride

Last June, Gerry Holzman made what would be his last visit to The Farmers’ Museum. This trip, one of many, was to celebrate his 90th birthday betwixt and between the indigenous New York State animals he designed and, with a battery of fellow woodworkers, deftly carved, to carry museum visitors on a wild ride on the museum’s Empire State Carousel. The unique, hand-crafted merry-go-round was conceived by Holzman and designed specifically to represent the history and culture of New York State. He died in early December.

Holzman grew up in Dutchess County, and after earning several degrees from the University at Albany settled on a career in teaching English, social studies and the humanities. When he retired in 1970, he took up woodcarving, which had always been a special hobby. In 1976, he became interested in carousels, often called merry-go-rounds and originally referred to as roundabouts or hurdy-gurdys, and he restored more than 75 works of art from the older examples, of which there are a number extant across the globe. The culmination of this passion was his Empire State Carousel Project, which kept him, as head carver and fund-raiser, busy for 20 years, overseeing over 1,000 volunteer carvers, quilters, painters, and woodworkers from across the state. The carousel has 23 riding animals native to New York State; 21 carved portrait panels depicting well-known New Yorkers; eight carved folklore panels depicting the regions of New York; and the “Mighty and Magnificent Military Band Organ,” the façade of which was designed around the theme of New York State musicians.

When, in 2003, the Empire State Carousel was completed, it was housed in the Holtsvile Ecology Center and Animal Preserve, which was immediately shut down by the town for not being up to code. Holzman found its new home here, at The Farmer’s Museum, in 2005.

Early carousels, also spelled carrousels, emerged from jousting traditions in Europe and the Middle East, where knights, utilizing sophisticated skill and horsemanship, galloped in a circle and tossed balls to each other. Rooted in 12th-century Byzantine and Arab traditions, the game became a combat training exercise for the Crusaders. In the 17th century, the riders took to spearing small rings that were hanging from poles overhead, a popular cavalry spectacle which was soon repeated by commoners, with carousels springing up in fairgrounds across Europe. They also celebrated special events, with a ceremonial parade of knights and noblemen charging their steeds around a courtyard. When the son and heir of Louis XIV was born in June 1662, the king organized a carousel in the courtyard of the Tuileries Palace. The site is known as The Carrousel to this day.

In the mid-19th century the platform carousel was developed and the animals—horses—were fixed to a circular rotating floor which was operated by ponies and mules. Then gears were installed and the horses moved up and down on their poles, as if galloping. Organ music and electric lights ensued, and the carousel became a popular attraction in the fairgrounds of the world.

The golden age of the carousel in the United States was the early 20th century, at which time there were as many as 7,000 nationwide. Although today they number about 225, herds of horses still gallop in circles in many fairgrounds, parks and cities. Binghamton, the Carousel Capital of the World, has six, all with free admission because their owner, George F. Johnson, of the Endicott-Johnson Company, never wanted a child to be unable to afford a ride; the carousel at Bear Mountain Park also features carvings of native animals; the carousel in New York’s Central Park, the fourth on the site, is the largest in the country, with 52 jumping horses, five standing horses and two chariots. Every year it takes 250,000 enthusiastic people for a ride. The Empire State Carousel will wake up in April; let’s go for a ride.