Abbot-Downing: Coach and Wagon Makers to the World

Publication available from the New Hampshire Historical Society

A newly released publication by the New Hampshire Historical Society, featuring this colorful, world-famous Granite State product. Although interest in the Abbot-Downing Company and the vehicles it manufactured extends around the world, little has been available in print in recent years to inform readers about the firm and its products.  In publishing Abbot-Downing: Coach and Wagon Makers to the World, the Historical Society aims to fill this gap and to ensure that a richly illustrated overview of the subject is available to anyone who is curious about the Concord coach, including those whose interest has been sparked by encountering one of the approximately 80 examples on view today in museums and historic sites around the country.

Those contributing to the publication’s content include Harry N. Scheiber, professor of history and law at the University of California at Berkeley since 1980; Merri Ferrell, who served for 20 years as curator of the carriage collection at the Long Island Museum of American Art, History, and Carriages; Christopher Augerson, formerly conservator of paint and gilding at the Chateau of Versailles Coach Museum; and William Copeley, who during his many years as librarian at the New Hampshire Historical Society has developed extensive research files concerning extant Concord coaches.

The new publication doubles as a special issue of the Society’s journal Historical New Hampshire. It is available either for purchase through the New Hampshire Historical Society store or for free as a member benefit.  The price of an individual copy is $9.95 plus shipping and handling.  To order a copy or to subscribe to Historical New Hampshire by becoming a Society member, call 603-856-0625, email store@nhhistory.org, or visit online at nhhistory.org.