Concord-style stagecoach model
Object Details
- Description
- This model represents one of the most famous aspects of America’s western history, the stagecoach. Concord-style mail coaches were used from the early 1800s through the early 1900s and obtained their name from the town where they were built. Lewis S. Downing and partner J. Stephen Abbott designed and built these vehicles in Concord, New Hampshire. The Abbott Downing Company achieved international fame for its well-crafted and sturdy stagecoaches. The vehicles were elegantly painted in bright colors and decorated with oil paintings on the doors. The vehicles, while fancy to look at, were built to withstand the demands of the nation’s rough and rugged roads. The coaches were built in six, nine, and twelve-passenger sizes (not counting passengers who rode on the roof when the coach was full). The mail was typically carried in a space under the driver's seat, and baggage could be loaded on the rack on top or in the rear compartment.
- After twenty years in business together, Abbott and Downing went their separate ways in an amicable split. Downing continued to build Concord coaches, and the two companies merged again in 1865 when Lewis Downing, Jr. and J.S. and E.A. Abbott Company formed the Abbott-Downing Company. Coaches, wagons, and carriages continued to be manufactured under that company’s name until 1919.
- Credit line
- Transfer from the Post Office Department
- Data Source
- National Postal Museum
- Date
- 1850-1899
- Object number
- 0.052985.270
- Type
- Transportation Equipment & Models
- Medium
- wood; paint
- Dimensions
- Height x Width x Depth: 17 1/2 x 12 x 48 in. (44.45 x 30.48 x 121.92 cm)
- Place
- United States of America
- See more items in
- National Postal Museum Collection
- On View
- Currently on exhibit at the National Postal Museum
- Topic
- Transportation
- Record ID
- npm_0.052985.270
