Museum to Restore Dick McMahon's Driving Colors

1931 Hambletonian Winner Calumet Butler with driver Dick McMahon

The Harness Racing Museum & Hall of Fame in Goshen, NY has received a $2,440 grant from the Greater Hudson Heritage Network for the treatment of Richard McMahon’s silk Driving Jacket; the work will be executed by textile conservator Gwen Spicer, Spicer Art Conservation, LLC.

“Dick” McMahon was born in Fredonia, KS, about 1880. Around 1896, he started as a groom and learned the art of driving trotters with the Steward Brothers of Kansas City, MO. His first claim to fame was with the pacer, Major Muscovite, at the turn of the century. He maintained a public stable until he went with Calumet Farm in Kentucky. With the Calumet horses he won many stakes, including the 1931 Hambletonian with Calumet Butler. Dick McMahon, who was rated one of the best harness drivers of his time, retired from racing after the 1931 season to manage Calumet Farm. He died in Kentucky in 1945 and was elected an Immortal of the Harness Racing Hall of Fame in 1958.

The Harness Racing Museum’s Carol Fleming Messenger Fund for the Care and Conservation of Drivers’ Colors continues to be a driving force behind the conservation treatment of the Museum’s silks collection. Established in 2004, the Messenger Fund has raised $39,400 through grants and individual sponsorships which have to date helped to preserve eight drivers’ jackets and nine caps. Projects completed this year include the jacket and caps of Immortals Gabe Cartnal, Henry Thomas and Lon McDonald. Much remains to be done and further individual and grant funding support will be sought in the coming year to provide for the colors that remain un-sponsored at this time. The jackets and caps of the following renowned reinsmen have been prioritized for care but as yet remain without a funding sponsor:

Ralph Baldwin

Tom Berry

Harry Burright

Will Caton

Charles Coburn

Guy Crippen

Jimmy Cruise

Vernon Dancer

John Dodge

Charles Fitzpatrick

W. Forester Gibbons

Clint Hodgins

Joe O’Brien

Nat Ray

Sanders Russell

Ira Ryerson

Frank Safford

Bi Shively

Specific estimates can be obtained for those interested in helping with this important project to preserve harness racing's important memories, however as a general guideline, the cleaning and/or treatment of a single jacket may range in cost from $350 to $3,500 depending upon condition. The cleaning and/or treatment of an individual cap may range in cost from $200 to $1,500. These are broad general estimates. Donations of any amount are invited. They can be sponsor-specific or not and according to donor instructions will be acknowledged on exhibition labels and in all announcements.

To adopt the colors of one of these memorable characters contact Rebecca Howard, manager of the Museum’s Historic Collections Department at 845.294.6330 or email collections@harnessmuseum.com

The Greater Hudson Heritage Network (formerly Lower Hudson Conference of Historical Agencies & Museums) has awarded nearly $120,000 in conservation treatment grants to 27 organizations, located in 18 counties of New York, in association with the Museum Program of the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), a state agency. These 2009 awards bring the total granted by this statewide program to over $1 million, since the Conservation Treatment Grant program began in 2000.

From the Bronx to Buffalo, these re-granted funds will provide treatment by professional conservators to aid in stabilizing, preserving, and making accessible to the public an array of unique objects in collections of New York’s museums, historical and cultural organizations of all sizes.

From Seneca Falls to Smithtown, 2009 grants will support treatment of ancient Greek kylizes and contemporary bronze sculpture, printed earthenware, silk and woven textiles, and oil paintings—such as an 18^th c. Cuzco School Madonna and Child, 19^th c. portraits, and 20^th c. landscapes with their carved, gilt frames; a 28 ft. wall mural, an early 20^th c. Grand Advertising Curtain, and Frank Stella’s Big Gur. Diverse objects such as artist Thomas Cole’s Top Hat, a Leather Fire Hose, panoramic photograph of Gloversville, The Caudebec Inn 1920’s Hotel Register, a plaster bull sculpture maquette, carriages, coaches, a newsprint sign and a Native American clam basket are among the artifacts stewarded by collecting and exhibiting institutions from Rochester to Rhinebeck receiving conservation treatment support through the 2009 grant program.

Grants are awarded for prioritized, urgently needed conservation of objects that, once treated, will impact public interpretive programs, exhibitions and education. Non-profit organizations with stewardship responsibility for cultural collections were eligible applicants; state or federally owned collections are ineligible for support. Grant funding can treat paintings, works on paper, textiles, furniture, sculpture, ethnographic, historical and decorative objects, and may also support accompanying professional treatment of frames, supports, stands and mounts if integral to the final public presentation of the object, after conservation.

Greater Hudson Heritage Network strives to provide support for conservation treatments that are executed on the highest professional level. The field of conservation is continually changing, with pioneering research and dissemination of findings on innovative materials and techniques. Although there are many paths into the field of conservation, we acknowledge practitioners who have demonstrated high levels of proficiency and advanced knowledge, adherence to the ethics and standards of the American Institute of Conservation (AIC), and are recognized for their expertise in the museum field.

An evaluation of the first five years of the Conservation Treatment Grant Program reported that these grants led to public impact outcomes beyond the actual conservation of museum objects, including heightened appreciation of the collections, and increased public awareness of the institution’s role as steward, and has proven a spark to further institutional, strategic, financial and long-range conservation planning. Beyond these outcomes, grant recipients reported that Conservation Treatment funding prompted fuller use of collections (for exhibition, web content and loan), enhanced interpretive capability, and expanded opportunities to educate the public about art, history, humanities, the science of conservation, and museum work.

41 grant applications were received at Greater Hudson from institutions in 23 counties of New York State, requesting an aggregate of nearly $192,000 in grant support. 27 awards totaling approximately $120,000 were recommended by a peer panel of conservators, curators and museum professionals. Individual 2009 Conservation Treatment Grants range from $555 to $7,500.

Of the 27 funded institutions, 63% have annual budgets under $360,000 (15% with operating budgets of less than $50,000), and 37% have budgets greater than $400,000 (15% of those have budgets of $400-$750,000; 15% are in the $1.8 million - $4.5 million range, and 7% operate at over $17 million). Organizational annual operating budgets of 2009’s grant recipients span a stunning range from $3,400 to $18.7 million