Carriage Making in St. John's, Newfoundland: A Folkloristic Perspective on a Historical Industry

This article examines the carriage-making industry of St. John's, Newfoundland. It seeks to explore, in a case study format, how small and isolated industries responded gradually to the realities of mass production in an era of industrial transition. In Atlantic Canada, both large carriage manu...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: MacKinnon, Richard
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Material Culture Review / Revue de la culture matérielle 1988
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/MCR/article/view/17334
Description
Summary:This article examines the carriage-making industry of St. John's, Newfoundland. It seeks to explore, in a case study format, how small and isolated industries responded gradually to the realities of mass production in an era of industrial transition. In Atlantic Canada, both large carriage manufacturers and smaller craftshops existed; however, most prevalent were the small carriage factories which possessed some of the characteristics of rural craftshops. In considering the development and decline of the Newfoundland carriage-making industry, this paper provides a case study of one particular St. John's factory— Cornell's. Moreover, the limitations of the word craft are outlined and, in the context of carriage making in the Atlantic region, a broader definition of this term is offered. Résumé Cet article s'attache à l'industrie de la voiture à cheval à St. John's (Terre-Neuve). Adoptant la formule de l'étude de cas, il explore comment de petites fabriques isolées se sont progressivement adaptées aux exigences de la mutation industrielle et de la production en série. Dans les provinces de l'Atlantique, les grandes manufactures de voitures coexistaient avec les petits ateliers d'artisans, mais on y trouvait surtout de petites usines rappelant un peu les échoppes rurales. Tout en considérant l'évolution et le déclin de cette industrie à Terre-Neuve en général, l'article s'attarde au cas de l'usine Cornell's à St. John's. Il fait d'ailleurs ressortir les limites du mot anglais «craft» (artisanat) et propose au lecteur une définition plus large de ce terme dans le contexte de l'étude.