McLaughlin display adds to carriage history
The Remington Carriage Museum in Cardston is participating in Canada’s 150th celebration with a unique new display.
Being known as one of the main contributing factors to Canada’s transportation history, the Remington Carriage Museum is opening a new display that pays homage to the McLaughlin family and their journey through history.
Darren Marty, curator for Southern Alberta Historic Sites, says this new display plays a large part in Canada’s history.
“We decided to open this display to coincide with Canada’s 150th celebration as the McLaughlin story really is one of the most important stories in Canada’s transportation history,” he says.
This new display is opening to showcase the story of the McLaughlin family coming to Canada as Irish immigrants, and their journey to becoming the biggest carriage company within the British Empire. Soon after, they established themselves as responsible for what is known today as General Motors Canada.
“They started as farmers, making sleighs back in 1867, but they soon started making carriages and by 1869 they had established themselves as the biggest carriage producers within the British empire,” Marty explains as a brief history on the new display.
The display will hold many educational features for the public to browse, including beautifully restored and “as-found” carriages from the McLaughlin family themselves.
“We’ll have a 1867 Cutter Highlights carriage to view in our main display. As well as a 1910 McLaughlin Buick Model 19 car that’s actually older than some of the other carriages here,” he says.
The new display is ready to tell the public the McLaughlin’s carriage story.
However, the story is too big for one museum to tell. The McLaughlin story is set up with the Remington Carriage museum’s sister facility, the Reynolds Alberta Museum, which will focus more on the General Motors side of McLaughlin’s history.
The Remington Carriage Museum is the largest museum of its kind within the world and displays more than 240 carriages for the public. Now the public has another reason to visit.
The McLaughlin story is set on a two-car 18-month loan with the museum, however, Marty hopes for the display to become a permanent fixture.
“We are placing the display in our newly-renovated section of the museum and want to keep it permanently here at the museum.”
With its newly-renovated, retooled and re-designed factory display, the McLaughlin story is now available for the public to view.