Restoring the Glen Echo Park Carousel

Book excerpt: Restoration artist Rosa Ragan spent 20 years, from 1983 to 2003, restoring the Dentzel menagerie carousel in Glen Echo, MD. The full story of her work is now captured in Restoring the Glen Echo Park Carousel by Deborah Lange, with over 500 beautiful full-color photographs showing the methods Rosa used on the animals, chariots, drum panels, ceiling panels, rounding boards, and band organ. Her methods are carefully explained, with detailed descriptions of how she finds original colors, removes park paint, makes repairs, cleans the animals, traces designs, protects the original paint, applies leaf, paints the animals, applies pin striping and designs, and applies a finish coat. The inpainting methods she uses on the drum panels and ceiling panels are also fully described, as are the bronze powder methods she uses on the Wurlitzer band organ.Also included is a chapter on repair techniques, which describes filling voids, tightening seams, and shaping and attaching new pieces, and a chapter on painting techniques, which covers surface preparation, leafing, glazing, bronzing, blending, creating dapples, pin striping, varnishing, and other topics. A complete materials list and photographic catalog of all finished animals and chariots makes this book an excellent aid for anyone considering a restoration. This book, however, is more than a restorer's guide. It is written for the general public to explain how a much-loved but abused ride was restored to become once again the magnificent functional art it was when it arrived at the park in 1921.