This morning the Long Island Museum of Art History and Carriages’ Development officer Ron Dippel made a presentation at LIMBA.

 

A large section of the museum has been dedicated to the carriage collection. Graves Brothers Carriage Builders of Massachusetts went out of business many years ago. Remarkably that facility has been preserved by the family that owned the property and recently they donated the artifacts to the museum. All of the tools and equipment used in the manufacture of their carriages were catalogued, disassembled, shipped and reconstructed at the Stony Brook location. They were also able to secure copies of the Studebaker carriages and a Studebaker automobile. Studebaker was able to make the transition to making cars while other carriage makers went out of business.

 

The Art section has collections from the many Long Island artists. It has the largest collection anywhere of Long Island artist, William Sidney Mount who lived in Stony Brook. There are also revolving expositions that had a showing of the stained glass of Louis Comfort Tiffany, who lived in Cold Spring Harbor.

 

The history of Long Island chronicles the many major innovations that were born on Long Island. One exhibit was dedicated to legacy of Robert Moses. The successes and controversy that surrounded the “Master Builder included the building of the parkway system, the beachfront parks of Jones beach and Robert Moses Park, which remain today as his great successes. The controversial projects include the Cross Bronx Expressway and the ill-conceived idea of building a road through the spine of Fire Island. (It was never built).

 

There is also the building of Levitown. Levitt was referred to as the Henry Ford of home building. At one point a new home owner was given the keys to a new house every 45 minutes. The methods of home building were replicated all over the country and some of them were built by the same Levitt organization that built on Long Island. On February 10th the museum will demonstrate a Levitt kitchen and some other rooms in those homes.

 

Recently the museum was named as an associate museum of the Smithsonian Institute. This is prestigious designation and in cooperation will be a part of the National Treasures tour where exhibits will travel throughout the country.

 

This museum is a dynamic institution that changes and builds. If you have been there before you will learn more if you return. They are in fact planning a new section to house the exhibits that are constantly growing.

On May 10th they will be hosting an event “Perfecting the Art of Business”. You may want to visit the website http://www.longislandmuseum.org/ 

Pictured: LIMBA’s Ernie Fazio, LI Museum Trustee, Michelle Zere, and Museum Development officer Rob Dippel