Lourinda Bray is an American restoration artist and historian with a specialty in

carousel A carousel or carrousel (mainly North American English), merry-go-round (List of sovereign states, international), roundabout (British English), or hurdy-gurdy (an old term in Australian English, in South Australia, SA) is a type of amusement ...

animals. She is also the owner of Running Horse Studios, a 7,000-square-foot carousel animal restoration warehouse. Her collection exceeds 400 and spans animals created throughout America, Mexico, and Europe from the mid-19th century to the present day. In addition to carousel figures, she has collected and restored other parts of carousels such as decorative mirrors, placards, base boards, and benches. Her collection also includes carousel-themed toys, postcards, and miniatures. The collection is sourced from numerous carousel carvers from the Golden Age of carousels such as Herschell-Spillman, Charles Carmel, Charles Looff, E. Joy Morris, M.C. Illions & Sons Carousell Works, Philadelphia Toboggan Company, Dentzel Carousel Company, C.W. Parker Amusement Company, W.P. Wilcox, Josef Hübner, D.C. Muller Brothers, J.R. Anderson, Stein & Goldstein, Charles W. Dare, Orton Sons & Spooner, Daniel C. Muller & Bro, Bayol Carousel Company,

Limonaire Frères Limonaire Frères were an amusement ride, street organ and fairground organ builder, based in Paris, France, during the 19th and early 20th century. History 1839 to 1886 Started by the Limonaire brothers Joseph and Antoine in 1839, as piano and ...

, Carl Müller, and Daniel Hegereda.Flying Horses & Mythical Beasts : The Magical World of Carousel Animals
Pasadena Museum of History, 2016 Bray has co-hosted the National Carousel Association's Technical Assistance Conference due to her expertise and curated two major exhibitions of her restoration work at the

Pasadena Museum of History Pasadena Museum of History is a private, nonprofit museum and research library located in Pasadena, California. It is the only institution dedicated to the history, art and culture of historic Pasadena and the west San Gabriel Valley. Headquarte ...

Early life and education

Bray was inspired by carousel animals from a young age, particularly when she saw the famous

Griffith Park Griffith Park is a large municipal park at the eastern end of the Santa Monica Mountains, in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. The park includes popular attractions such as the Los Angeles Zoo, the Autry Museum of the Ameri ...

carousel when she was five.The Glendora Historical Society Newsletter, July-August 2018
Glendora Historical Society She liked to draw horses and wanted to ride live ones but was allergic, making being in their presence difficult. The next best approximation were carousel horses, which Bray rode whenever possible. Bray earned her bachelor's degree in painting and a Master's in stagecraft, specifically set design and special effects for television, including light design.

Career

In the late 1970s, Bray began purchasing carousel animals to restore with funds she had inherited and invested. Her first purchase was a figure from the Kiddieland Carousel at the

Pomona Pomona may refer to: Places Argentina * Pomona, Río Negro Australia * Pomona, Queensland, Australia, a town in the Shire of Noosa * Pomona, New South Wales, Australia Belize * Pomona, Belize, a municipality in Stann Creek District Mexico ...

Fair. A major restoration effort was undertaken when, after 14 years of working on it, Bray purchased the Santa's Village Carousel. Bray founded her studio in the early 1980s. She has amassed carousel figures of all kinds since, from serpents, zebras, tigers, camels, and roosters to dragons,

witches Witchcraft traditionally means the use of magic or supernatural powers to harm others. A practitioner is a witch. In medieval and early modern Europe, where the term originated, accused witches were usually women who were believed to have use ...

lions The lion (''Panthera leo'') is a large cat of the genus ''Panthera'' native to Africa and India. It has a muscular, broad-chested body; short, rounded head; round ears; and a hairy tuft at the end of its tail. It is sexually dimorphic; adult ...

, peacocks, goats, and

cats The cat (''Felis catus'') is a domestic species of small carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species in the family Felidae and is commonly referred to as the domestic cat or house cat to distinguish it from the wild members of t ...

. Her oldest hand-carved animal is a tiger from 1875. Her holdings include pieces from the

Knott's Berry Farm Knott's Berry Farm is a theme park located in Buena Park, California, owned and operated by Cedar Fair. In 2015, it was the twelfth-most-visited theme park in North America and averages approximately 4 million visitors per year. It features 40 ...

Lagoon Carousel; the estate of Swen Swenson, America's first collector of carousel pieces; the only known zebra carved by famous carousel carver Charles Carmel, and other curiosities. Bray's restored animals have been the subject of two major exhibitions at the

Pasadena, California Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district. I ...

: ''Flying Horses and Mythical Beasts: The Magical World of Carousels'' and ''Giddy Up: Children Take the Reins.''Flying Horses & Mythical Beasts
KTLA, August 25, 2016

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bray, Lourinda Carousel designers American women historians Conservator-restorers 20th-century American women artists 21st-century American women artists 20th-century American historians 21st-century American historians Year of birth missing (living people) Living people