Episode 4 | September 26, 2021

In this final episode of Carousel Stories, we feature carousel riders from 8 years old to 98 years old! Dee Beilstein is 98 years old and rode the Glen Echo Park Dentzel Carousel back in its first decade--in the 1920s! She also rode the Coaster Dips, the wooden roller coaster of the same time period, and later danced in the Spanish Ballroom with her husband. Amy Rogers is 8 years old and has been riding since she was a baby right up through this year, when the carousel marks its 100th birthday. 

Watch here or watch on YouTube  |  Watch on YouTube >>

Episode 3 | September 22, 2021

Introducing the third episode in our Carousel Stories Series – part of our Carousel Stories Oral History Project in partnership with Story Tapestries! We're so excited to continue telling the stories of visitors who have graciously shared their memories and explained what the carousel means to them -- all in honor of the carousel’s 100th anniversary. This month’s episode focuses on the important role our carousel played in the civil rights movement in the Washington, D.C. area. Hear from one of the protesters from the summer of 1960 and others. Our final story will include an interview with someone who rode the carousel in the 1920s!! We hope you'll enjoy all of these stories. #Carousel100 

Watch here or watch on YouTube  |  Watch on YouTube >>

Episode 2 | July 30, 2021

Introducing the second episode in our Carousel Stories Series – part of our Carousel Stories Oral History Project in partnership with Story Tapestries! We're so excited to continue telling the stories of visitors who have graciously shared their memories and explained what the carousel means to them -- all in honor of the carousel’s 100th anniversary. This month we hear from a couple who married at the Park, from sisters whose love for our carousel translated into a general fascination with carousels and trips across the country to visit merry-go-rounds throughout the U.S, and from someone who "caught the brass ring" decades ago when the Park's included that feature. Next month's stories will discuss the civil rights protests at the Park in the summer of 1960, and the following month we'll share the memories of someone who rode in the 1920s!! We hope you'll enjoy all of these stories.

Watch here or watch on YouTube  |  Watch on YouTube >>

Episode 1 | June 25, 2021

We are pleased to present the first episode in the Carousel Stories Series – part of our Carousel Stories Oral History Project in partnership with Story Tapestries! It's so exciting to begin sharing these nostalgic, historical, fun -- and sometimes not so fun -- carousel memories with the public in honor of the carousel’s 100th anniversary. 

Watch here or watch on YouTube  |  Watch on YouTube >>

Share Your Carousel Story! 

Our months-long celebration of the Carousel 100th Anniversary will include the premieres of three short videos that will feature personal stories reflecting the unique and enduring role the carousel has played in the community for a century. In a joint project with Story Tapestries, a nonprofit arts service organization that specializes in empowering people’s voices through digital storytelling and other art forms, we are collecting information from the public throughout the month of February. (Deadline extended! Submissions will be taken through March 31!) 

We have heard countless stories over many decades from carousel riders of all ages, and now we would like to collect and record these memories – these pieces of history – to preserve them for decades to come. We know there are generations of park-goers who have ridden the carousel with their families and friends – stories of World War II, civil rights protests, the turbulent 1960s, and the fifty years since the Park became a National Park Service property and an arts and cultural center – and we invite everyone to share their memories with us.

While only a handful of the stories collected will end up in the videos, many of the stories will be shared in other ways throughout the carousel celebration, and all the stories will be preserved.

SUBMISSIONS FOR THE CAROUSEL STORIES PROJECT HAVE CLOSED

Back to Carousel 100th Anniversary >>