EAIA Educates and Serves

Chronicle of the Early American Industries Association, Inc., The, Jan/Feb 2004 by Hall, Elton

It always seems a little odd to be sitting at the computer composing a column containing hortatory thoughts for the January/February issue to launch us into a bright new year while there is so much going on before we get to that. The shadows are still lengthening, the days growing shorter, we're about to intensify the thinking most of us do all the time about what we have to be thankful for, and the holidays for which to prepare and then enjoy. A headline on the front page of today's local paper proclaims: "Shoppers, Start Your Engines." In the twinkling of an eye, we will be into the new year and this will be in the mail. Yet even before this writing, EAIA committees have been at work planning our offerings for 2004: the Annual Meeting, the EAIA-Eastfield Workshops, the Tool Tour, and one or more regional meetings.

The EAIA is a service organization. We exist as a nonprofit educational corporation to assist our fellow members, the field of American material culture, and the general public in their personal interests and professions of gaining greater knowledge and deeper understanding of early American tools, trades, and industries. While I feel that the membership, which provides the support for our programs, should have the principal voice in guiding us, the fact that we are a tax-exempt corporation accords us both the responsibility and privilege of being of service to the public.

Over the seventy years of our existence life has changed considerably. The possession of knowledge of tools and trades has shifted from users and practitioners to collectors and scholars. This shift has borne with it a change in the nature and point of view of the knowledge which in former times was carried both in the head and the hands but is now principally in the head and on paper. The number of hands actively engaged in earning a living with these tools has greatly decreased. The bibliography on tools and early American industries has grown greatly since we came into being, when Mercer's book was about all that was readily available to read. And now the means and materials for information transmission are changing rapidly.

What this means for the EAIA is that we must be on our toes, paying attention to these changes and assessing our own operations in light of them. While there are opportunities for providing more and better services, there are also potential problems. Not the least of these is the fact that a generation brought up in the traditions of hand tools and craft trades has been replaced with a new generation that is being brought up on electronic gadgetry and products ready-made by machine. When they reach the age of nostalgia, they won't have childhood recollections of shop classes in high school or going out and puttering around in their father's shop making things out of wood. Thus they are not likely to take an interest in the things we like unless we make an effort to engage their interest now.

Accordingly, under David Parke's leadership, we are preparing to take a closer look at who we are and what we do, with an eye to shaping our course for the next five years or so. The first step for that is to seek input from the members. David has described that step in his column on the SWOT analysis. I join him in encouraging you to think about the EAIA and conveying your thoughts to David in order to provide us with a better basis upon which to plan.

Meanwhile, I wish you a happy new year, success in your endeavors, growth in your collections, good health, and participation in as many EAIA activities as you can.

By Elton Hall

EAIA Executive Director