"Forty-niners' Wagon"

A Traveling Exhibit

1991 -- the Santa Cruz, CA Historical Trust in association with
            
the.McPherson Center for Art and History
Size
: 10 in. x 18 in.
Scale: 1/2 in. = 1 ft. (1/24th scale)
Figures: none
Features: Traveling Exhibit for Elementary School Use, true willow cover bows; scale artifacts loaded into the wagon.

 
The Santa Cruz, CA Historical Trust exists in association with the McPherson Center for Art and History, also in Santa Cruz, California. The Historical Trust was seeking a traveling exhibit about the "Forty-niner's" migration to California that could be taken to elementary and middle schools in the area. The goal was to provide insight about the process of moving an entire family two thousand miles across the country in the mid-eighteen hundreds, limited to what could be carried in a 'covered wagon' about three feet wide and eleven feet long. The diorama shows the wagon, with its canvas cover partially rolled back, providing good visual access to the items in the wagon. The daily use items are shown about the tent and campfire, where the day is just starting. The immigrants themselves are assumed to be off at the creek nearby, or otherwise occupied. Various tools are also in evidence, including the wagon jack, an artful construct of cast iron parts and a hardwood body, held together with wrought-iron straps and rivets.  
 
 
 
 

 

 
 
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