The McDonald & Woodward Publishing Company is pleased to introduce Carrie Papa, the author of three books with our press. The first, The Carousel Keepers: An Oral History of American Carousels captures the excitement of the small amusement park and the magic of the carousel that was its centerpiece. The New Jersey Historical Commission funded the author’s research on the carousels. Readers “hear” the voices of manufacturers of carousels and the craftsmen who made them, owners and managers of amusement parks, carousel operators, riders and preservationists. These accounts provide windows onto the everyday life of participants in the industry and view the reality behind the nostalgia. The Carousel Keepers chronicles an important part of our national amusement heritage.

A Mile Deep and Black as Pitch: An Oral History of the Franklin and Sterling Hill Mines  explores the history of zinc mining in Sussex County, New Jersey. Through the recollections of the miners and their families, Ms. Papa documents an important and controversial piece of American industrial history. A Mile Deep and Black as Pitch presents the past in the words of those who lived it – the underground miners who tell about their work and their lives. These miners speak for thousands of other hard-rock miners throughout the United States who daily faced the same kind of difficult dangerous work. Through their stories, we learn of the American mining industry in the first half of the 20^th century and of the miners, primarily immigrants, who made the industry possible.

Ms. Papa is currently at work on a new book about carousels, Diamonds on the Midway: A Guide to Antique Carousels. This book will be part of the McDonald & Woodward Guides to the American Landscape series. Ms. Papa also is a member of the M & W Speakers Bureau, a group of authors enthusiastic about sharing their knowledge of their subject with interested audiences. Ms. Papa is available for talks illustrated with slides, oral history workshops, and book signings.

About the Author

Although Ms. Papa earned a BA in history from Rutgers University, her interest in people and their history was further sharpened during thirty years of living in foreign countries with her husband who was on assignment with the US Diplomatic Corps. When the Papas retired to New Jersey, she became immersed in her own country’s past. She worked with a local history society to save, restore and establish a museum in a one-room schoolhouse dating back nearly two centuries. The Old Monroe School Museum received several awards under her directorship.