Gleanings from Libraries: The Winterthur Library

Chronicle of the Early American Industries Association, Inc., The, Mar 2005 by Cooney, Catherine, McKinstry, E Richard

The Downs Collection has many more original sources relating to early industry and tools in America.

The Dominy family papers document four generations of a family of clockmakers and craftsmen from East Hampton, Long Island, beginning in the mid 1700s. They relate to Winterthur Museum's collection of Dominy artifacts, including some eight hundred tools, on view in a special display of the Dominy clock shop and woodworking shop. Of particular note are manuscript account books that document the versatility and variety of craft activities performed by members of the family as well as the tools they used in their shops.

Account books maintained by individual craftsmen are equally important. James Stiles, who was located on Barclay Street in New York City, kept a receipt book from 1773-1827 in which he recorded both personal and business transactions; several receipts pertain to his planemaking activities. Israel Houghton made furniture in Petersham, Massachusetts, from 1817-1847 and in his account book recorded another of his talents by noting that he also constructed handles for various tools; so too did furnituremaker Martin Sampson, who worked in southeastern Massachusetts, 1820-1829, and whose account book is in Downs. Active in the mid 1830s, Beriah Willis, from Manayunk, now a section of Philadelphia, operated a machine and tool-making shop and wrote down his activities in what he called his journal. Bartholomew Akin, a cabinetmaker from Massachusetts from the 1770s-1820s, prized his tools to the point of writing instructions about their care in his account book.

In addition to having account books from these craftsmen and others, Winterthur has collected about thirty manuscript volumes from blacksmiths-both named and anonymous-who forged metal used to make hand tools and other items. Mostly from the nineteenth century and the Mid-Atlantic and New England regions, these original sources typically state what the blacksmith made, who he sold it to and when, and what it cost.

Estate inventories and lists of items sold at auctions-sometimes called vendues-are important for the study of early industry and tools. Unlike manuscript repositories elsewhere where large collections often swallow them up, the Downs Collection maintains a separate collection of miscellaneous inventories. By using them, researchers can determine the extent of tool ownership, identify who had what tools and speculate if they were tied to a particular craft, and, since most inventories and auction lists featured values, calculate the relative worth of tools compared to other commodities during any given time period.

Finally, people collect tools and have done so for generations. The Downs Collection is beginning to assemble records of antiques dealers, and while tools are generally not mentioned in what is now on the shelves, they were included in photographs in a volume of 1919-1923 sales from Knodle's Antique Shop, Hagerstown, Maryland.

Catherine Cooney is NEH Senior Librarian, Winterthur's Printed Book and Periodical Collection. Co-author E. Richard McKinstry is Winterthur's Andrew W. Mellon Senior Librarian.