Anatomy of a Horse-Drawn Hearse

In my last blog I provided details about a curiosity in the collection of the Portsmouth Historical Society - our 1871 horse-drawn hearse.  This blog will focus on the research my husband, Richard Schmidt, has conducted to understand the hearse, how it was made, and how it could possibly be preserved and one day restored.

There are some things that catch your eye when you first see the hearse.  It had large oval glass windows (we found broken pieces of the glass inside the hearse). The hearse appears shorter than normal until you notice that the coffin can slide under the driver's seat.  There are spikes on the inside floor of the hearse that can be raised to hold the coffin in place and there are rollers to make it easier to slide the coffin in and out.  

When we got the hearse back from storage at the Little Compton Historical Society, the urns were in pieces.  Putting them together was like working a three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle.  Research showed that the "flames" on the top of the urns could be removed and replaced with plumes of feathers.  The more prominent the deceased, the more plumes would be used.  

There was a diamond shaped pattern on the interior roof that appeared to be made by hundreds of diamond shaped pieces of wood that had been glued to the interior. An expert from the Preservation Society of Newport County came to view the hearse and suggested that the diamond shapes helped to maintain the curvature of the wood during construction. This would have been covered by fabric and not seen.  

Experts from the Preservation Society helped us uncover some of the mysteries of the hearse.  We think of a hearse as painted black, but our hearse appeared grey. Paint analysis told us that the hearse had indeed been black before it was covered with a coat of grey paint.  Fabric analysis of the tassels and interior draping told us what kinds of materials were used. Among the fabrics analyzed were cotton, wool, jute, silk and burlap. If we should get far enough along to restore the hearse, this knowledge will help us try to duplicate the material.  

Richard learned a great deal about wagon construction in order to understand how the hearse works. It is probable that the Newport furniture company made the upper part of the hearse and a local wagon company made the bottom.  Many wagons had what is known as a horizontally placed "fifth wheel" which helps turn the front axels right and left.  We also saw that the hearse has both a single and double "tree" arrangement so that it could be pulled by either one or two horses.

Richard has set the hearse axels on jack stands to take the weight off of the wheels.  The next step is to use recommended methods to remove rust and prevent it from forming.  If you are interested in working on the rust removal and stabilization, Richard would love some help.  Contact him at rlschmidt1947@gmail.com.

You can see the horse-drawn hearse at the Portsmouth Historical Society - Sundays from 2 to 4 PM, now through Columbus Day Weekend.