Restoration artist Rosa Ragan spent 20 years, from 1983 to 2003, restoring the Dentzel menagerie carousel in Glen Echo, MD. The full story of her work is now captured in Restoring the Glen Echo Park Carousel by Deborah Lange, with over 500 beautiful full-color photographs showing the methods Rosa used on the animals, chariots, drum panels, ceiling panels, rounding boards, and band organ. Her methods are carefully explained, with detailed descriptions of how she finds original colors, removes park paint, makes repairs, cleans the animals, traces designs, protects the original paint, applies leaf, paints the animals, applies pin striping and designs, and applies a finish coat. The inpainting methods she uses on the drum panels and ceiling panels are also fully described, as are the bronze powder methods she uses on the Wurlitzer band organ.Also included is a chapter on repair techniques, which describes filling voids, tightening seams, and shaping and attaching new pieces, and a chapter on painting techniques, which covers surface preparation, leafing, glazing, bronzing, blending, creating dapples, pin striping, varnishing, and other topics. A complete materials list and photographic catalog of all finished animals and chariots makes this book an excellent aid for anyone considering a restoration. This book, however, is more than a restorer's guide. It is written for the general public to explain how a much-loved but abused ride was restored to become once again the magnificent functional art it was when it arrived at the park in 1921.

“Intimate, big-hearted, compassionate and clear-eyed, Brafman’s novel turns secrets into truths and the truth into the heart of fiction.” —AMY BLOOM, author of Lucky Us and Away “From roots in one religious tradition, comes a tale of emotional redemption for all of us. Michelle Brafman’s astonishing compassion for all human frailty infuses this story about the need for truth and the promise of forgiveness.” —HELEN SIMONSON, author of Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand “Heartfelt and genuine, Washing the Dead never betrays the complicated truths of family and tradition.” — DAVID BEZMOZGIS, author of Natasha and Other Stories and The Betrayers “Like a Jewish Anne Lamott, Brafman reels you in with warmth, depth and heart.” —SUSAN COLL, author of The Stager and Acceptance Three generations of women confront family secrets in this exquisitely wrought debut novel that examines the experience of religious community, the perilous emotional path to adulthood, and the power of sacred rituals to repair damaged bonds between mothers and daughters. Michelle Brafman’s award-winning short stories and essays have appeared in the Washington Post, Slate, Tablet, Lilith Magazine, Bethesda Magazine and elsewhere. She teaches fiction writing at the Johns Hopkins University MA in Writing Program and lives in Glen Echo, Maryland with her husband and two children.

A cryptic letter on her grandmother's grave and a puzzling inscription on a carousel horse lead artist Maya Brice to ninety-year-old Hank Hauser. While stripping chipped layers of paint from the old horses and peeling, fragmented memories from their mysterious carver, Maya untangles the intertwined secrets of love, heartbreak and misunderstandings among three generations of strong willed women.

In this rhyming story, children describe the sights and sounds of riding on the merry-go-round.