The senior partner of the present firm of James Cunningham & Son, has been for many years actively engaged in the business of manufacturing Carriages, having been a member of the old firm of Kerr, Cunningham & Co. which was fully organized and commenced operations, May 1st, 1838.

This firm continued to manufacture some four years, when it was dissolved, Mr. Cunningham continuing the business which he successfully conducted alone until May 1st, 1865, when he admitted his son as a partner, since which time the ours has been continuously known as James Cunningham & Son.

From a comparatively small beginning the business has grown to immense proportions, and the little shop of less than forty years ago has expanded year by year, until now the magnificent buildings shown in our illustration are none too large. If the buildings comprising their present works were stretched in a straight line their united length would measure about 1,000 feet; one-half the length being six stories in height, and 45 feet wide; the remaining half three stories in height, and 66 feet wide; affording a floor area of nearly seven acres, and furnishing ample room for the constant employment of 700 men. All these structures are built in the most substantial manner. The walls are of brick and stone laid in cement and mortar, and are of unusual thickness, and in their erection neither pains nor expense were spared to render them strong enough to bear the immense weight resting upon them, durable enough to withstand the wear of Time and successfully battle against the destructive elements, including fire.

In these days of progress, labor saving machinery has become so important as element of productions that when we say this or that establishment employs a given number of men we really convey but little information as to its capacity. Work that but a few years since was done entirely by hand labor, is now almost as entirely done by machinery. Men, of course, are required to watch and direct the machine, sometimes two or more to a single one--- while sometimes a single man can oversee three or four of these silent workers-- but the number of men employed, in proportion to the amount of work done, is infinitely less then it was; and for this reason in estimating the possible production of an establishment engaged in any manufacturing business it is essential that the machinery employed should enter into the calculation. Men really do little else than to supply and watch the machines that do the bulk of the work, and to assemble their products together into a finished whole.

The works of Messrs. James Cunningham & Son are exceptionally well provided with labor saving machinery--much of it of their own invention devised to meet their own special wants, patented but not sold to other parties, being used exclusively in their own factory. Some of these machines will do the work of one hundred men. The immense saving in the cost of production where such devices are largely employed must be apparent to every thinking man nor does it work a harm to the skillful mechanics. From the decreased cost, spring an increased demand, and the experience of the present century proves that labor saving machines, absolutely increases the demand for the value of skilled labor. The machines of this establishment, if run to its full capacity, would supply work for 1,000 men, and at that rate, the production of the establishment would be equal to the labor of 7,000 men if the work was all done by hand. We cannot name, much less describe all these machines within the space assigned to this article, suffice it to say that the equipment of the factory is complete.

With such facilities for manufacture, backed up by thirty-eight years of practical experience in the business, and a capital of nearly half a million dollars invested in buildings, machinery and stock, this firm are enable to produce the best possible goods at the lowest prices, and to do this has been their constant aim.

The reputation of Messrs. James Cunningham & Son does not rest on the excellence of any single production, but on the general perfection of all their work, which embraces every style of carriage in use at the present time, and , if ordered, such as were used forty years ago or at anytime since. We present on this page sketches of a few of their present productions but only a few, as the reader will readily infer from the number attached to each name. They have constantly in stock a large assortment of Family Carriages, Light Buggies and Phaetons. Five glass Landaus, of various styles and forms, Landaulets, in many designs, Landaus, close and open quarters, Barouches of different styles, Coupes and Coupe-Rockaways, four and six passenger, also all varieties of Light Buggies, in fact almost every description of Vehicle for family or pleasure riding may be found in their spacious warerooms.

Messrs. James Cunningham & Son are not only manufacturers, but Designers, and they are thus enabled to give shape to the peculiar ideas of customers, and build any kind of Carriage their patrons may suggest. The most eccentric and the most fastidious can through them procure exactly the style desired.

The manufacture of Carriages for the pleasure and convenience of the living is the leading branch of their business, but not all of it. We can hardly say they minister to the comfort of the dead, or afford them aught of pleasure in providing chaste and fitting conveyances for the last dread ride tot he grave, but it does seem to us that the least the living can do, is provide a funeral car in keeping with the station the deceased held in life.

Few manufacturers have given any attention to Hearses but this firm have made their construction a special feature of their business, and their productions in that line are very models of fitness.