– Riding Towards Justice, LIM’s First Fully-Interactive Exhibition in the Carriage Museum, Explores the Fight for Equal Rights in Horse-Drawn Public Transportation in the United States –
The Long Island Museum in Stony Brook – a Smithsonian Affiliate that is home to one of the largest and finest collections of American horse-drawn transportation artifacts in the world – has announced that after two years of planning and development, the Museum has opened an exciting new permanent exhibition in the Carriage Museum that gives visitors an opportunity to experience history firsthand by climbing on board a vehicle. The exhibition, Riding Towards Justice, provides an accessible and safe way for visitors of all ages and abilities to get up close to history by stepping aboard a 24-foot-long 1887 horse-drawn streetcar, exploring the fight for equal rights in horse-drawn public transportation in the United States.
On Thursday, October 15th, a ribbon-cutting ceremony was held for Riding Towards Justice –the first fully-interactive exhibition in the internationally-renowned 40,000-square-foot Carriage Museum, which has more than 100 historic vehicles on view, along with more than 800 carriage-related artifacts. This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) [MA-255428-OMS-24]. The IMLS grant supported the exhibition’s planning with a team of consultants and its construction work executed by Southside Design & Building, of Brooklyn. In addition, the contributions of 33 community members also helped to fund the development of the exhibition.
The ribbon-cutting ceremony was attended by numerous individuals who played a key role in the creation and execution of this new exhibition, as well as local community leaders – and included a special proclamation issued by Councilmember Jonathan Kornreich, Town of Brookhaven, marking the occasion as “Riding Towards Justice Day”.
“We are so grateful for this grant from IMLS, as well as for the support of dedicated members of the community, which has helped us tell this important story in a more immersive, fully connective way that we know visitors of all ages will be excited to experience,” said Sarah Abruzzi, Co-Executive Director, Operations at The Long Island Museum. “As home to the nation’s most important collection of horse-drawn carriages, The Long Island Museum has a unique American story to share, and we are so pleased to be launching this very special exhibition here at the Museum and having it be part of our permanent carriage collection for years, and generations, to come. Our visitors have given us feedback that they wanted an opportunity to climb into a vehicle, and we are so pleased that this project has made that possible.”
Through this IMLS grant, The Long Island Museum was able to transform the original historic streetcar – which was once used in the movie Hello, Dolly (1969) starring Barbra Streisand – into an interactive exhibit fostering inclusivity, celebrating diversity, and highlighting the critical importance of equal rights for all. Decades after being retired and then part of a private transportation collection, the streetcar (built in 1887 by the J. G. Brill Company of Philadelphia) was repainted to resemble a New York City streetcar for the beloved 1969 film. Donated to The Long Island Museum in 2019, this famous streetcar now provides an inside and rare view of mass transportation history, and provides visitors of all ages and abilities with an unprecedented opportunity to get up close to history aboard an actual streetcar.
The new installation has a fully wheelchair-accessible ramp entrance for visitors to board the streetcar and sit within the 24-foot-long vehicle. Careful additional LED lighting and small design modifications to the interior of the vehicle have made this a fully accessible space. Large projected videos of early 20th century New York City traffic scenes also help to facilitate an immersive experience. Another engaging activity invites visitors to “take a whiff of history” through a smell-based interactive, with some of both the good and repulsive smells of New York City streets of the late-19th century.
Riding Towards Justice offers visitors a unique opportunity to gain insight into the fight for equal transit – and how the efforts of activists in the 1850s and 1860s helped change and eventually open, though imperfectly, a regional system of transit. The exhibition primarily examines the story of Elizabeth Jennings (1827-1901), a Black school teacher who fought for her right to ride a New York City streetcar in 1854, nearly 100 years before Rosa Parks. Visitors will learn about this important story of desegregation through text panels and an actor’s video portrayal of court testimony from Jennings’s case.
“Through this powerful interactive exhibition, visitors are able to gain insight into Elizabeth’s important story, and how she helped catalyze change through determination, bravery, and defiance,” said Nina Sangimino, Curator at The Long Island Museum. “The exhibition, and actually sitting aboard this 1887 horse-drawn streetcar, gives both children and adults a unique opportunity to have history come alive, and we’re excited for families, students, and history-lovers of all ages to ‘ride to justice’ with us here at the Museum.”
Riding Towards Justice project consultant advisors included:
- Mia Bay, Paul Mellon Professor of American History at the University of Cambridge.
- Richard Bell, Professor of History, University of Maryland
- Lynda Day, Professor of Africana Studies, Brooklyn College
- Janice Majewski, Director, Inclusive Cultural Projects, Institute for Human Centered Design
- Katherine Perrotta, Associate Professor of Education, Mercer University
- Rebecca Shulman, Museum Questions Consulting
For more information about Riding Towards Justice, as well as a full list of exhibitions and programs at LIM’s Carriage Museum, History Museum, and Art Museum, visit www.longislandmuseum.org or call 631-751-0066.
About The Long Island Museum
Founded in 1939 and accredited by AAM since 1973, The Long Island Museum is home to more than 60,000 artifacts and is the only Smithsonian Affiliate in the region. The Long Island Museum inspires and engages visitors of diverse ages, backgrounds, and abilities by connecting them with the region’s art and history, a world-class carriage collection, and energizing programs that foster a creative and inclusive community. For more about LIM’s exhibitions and programming, visit longislandmuseum.org.
About The Institute of Museum and Library Services
The Institute of Museum and Library Services is the primary source of federal support for the nation’s libraries and museums. We advance, support, and empower America’s museums, libraries, and related organizations through grantmaking, research, and policy development. IMLS envisions a nation where individuals and communities have access to museums and libraries to learn from and be inspired by the trusted information, ideas, and stories they contain about our diverse natural and cultural heritage. To learn more, visit www.imls.gov and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
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