Vintage Tools Museum List

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crbnSteeladdict

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Jersey Rockaway thread made me consider visiting Ford-Faesch House.
From there I realized I need to include in my roadtrip plans few visits to interesting museums with old woodworking tools.
What museum would you suggest ? (I was thinking lower 48, but
Miller '72 has already posted one from Alaska so for the benefit of the public let's make it: Planet Earth:))
 
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I read there is a river boat wreck or wrecks that have been salvaged and turned into a museum I would love to get to. Its in this forum I just haven't found it again yet to better reference it. I think i read it has on exhibit many New England/Eastern made tools.

When we get to Alaska, I will be heading to Haines for sure.

CCVi1Cc.jpg
 
About an hour and a half from Rockaway NJ is the Mercer Museum in Doylestown, PA.
I've never been there, but it looks interesting.

Mercer-Museum-Permanent-Exhibit.jpg


"The Mercer Museum is a history museum of everyday life in America during the 18th and 19th centuries. Henry Mercer (1856-1930) gathered the collection and constructed the Museum.The collection of some 40,000 objects documents the lives and tasks of early Americans through the tools that met their needs and wants prior to the Industrial Revolution, or about 1850. Visitors can choose their own paths through the Museum. Most of the 55 exhibit rooms and alcoves display the tools or products of an early American craft, trade or occupation. Other rooms show categories of objects such as lighting devices or architectural hardware."

from https://www.mercermuseum.org/exhibits/mercer-museum-exhibits/permanent-exhibits/

Museum guide:
https://www.mercermuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/MercerFloorplanandGuideNew.pdf

From the exhibit maps in the guide, it looks like the museum has 7 levels.

Mercer-Museum-Wedding-Doylestown-PA-8.1431635598.jpg
 
Steve Tall said:
About an hour and a half from Rockaway NJ is the Mercer Museum in Doylestown, PA.
I've never been there, but it looks interesting.

Mercer-Museum-Permanent-Exhibit.jpg


"The Mercer Museum is a history museum of everyday life in America during the 18th and 19th centuries. Henry Mercer (1856-1930) gathered the collection and constructed the Museum.The collection of some 40,000 objects documents the lives and tasks of early Americans through the tools that met their needs and wants prior to the Industrial Revolution, or about 1850. Visitors can choose their own paths through the Museum. Most of the 55 exhibit rooms and alcoves display the tools or products of an early American craft, trade or occupation. Other rooms show categories of objects such as lighting devices or architectural hardware."

from https://www.mercermuseum.org/exhibits/mercer-museum-exhibits/permanent-exhibits/

Museum guide:
https://www.mercermuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/MercerFloorplanandGuideNew.pdf

From the exhibit maps in the guide, it looks like the museum has 7 levels.

Mercer-Museum-Wedding-Doylestown-PA-8.1431635598.jpg
Click to expand...
Steve Tall You are killing me!!!!..... I used to spend many hours reading in Doylestown Library; never knew there was any museum across the street :)
 
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The Red River Museum in Clay City, KY has a treasure trove of OLD tools. I stopped in there April of this year for a quick look. I was amazed at what was there, and planned on going back to snap some pics for everyone, but haven't made it yet.
 
quinton said:
The Red River Museum in Clay City, KY has a treasure trove of OLD tools. I stopped in there April of this year for a quick look. I was amazed at what was there, and planned on going back to snap some pics for everyone, but haven't made it yet.
Click to expand...

Red River Gorge - camping, hiking, swimming - Red River Museum - tools. Maybe get into Lexington for a couple days...
Sounds like you just planned my next family camping trip :thumbsup::D
 
If you are around the Kansas City area, be sure and stop by the Steamboat Arabia museum. The Arabia sank in the Missouri River around 1857, the channel moved and the wreck was buried until it was discovered in, I think, 1987. It was excavated and the 200 tons of cargo is now on display in Kansas City. Everything from boots to pickled beets was preserved in the mud and it is definitely worth your time to go and see what it took to equip a town back in the 1800's.
 
For the history of the tools we use...
Connecticut Valley Agricultural Museum
I grew up working tobacco, shade and broadleaf. My first real job at 12 was suckering shade tobacco under those beautiful billowing silky white nets.
At 12 the days are long and hot and you get yelled at a lot for throwing dirt bombs at your other 12 year old buddies but from that comes appreciation for hard work and those that do it.
I was still working tobacco and an apple orchard/farm into my late twenties when I met my now wife.
That's when I decided to go into the trades, oil heat technician.
My basement is a museum itself, an unplanned accumulation, a tribute I defend to my wife, to oil heating.
 
Another interesting thing about the Mercer Museum, besides the tools, is that the entire building is built of poured concrete. Look at the picture Steve posted--the walls (interior and exterior), the roof, the gutters, and even the windows, mullions and all, are poured concrete ! Henry Mercer was scared of fire burning up the collections.
 
Old Axeman said:
Another interesting thing about the Mercer Museum, besides the tools, is that the entire building is built of poured concrete. Look at the picture Steve posted--the walls (interior and exterior), the roof, the gutters, and even the windows, mullions and all, are poured concrete ! Henry Mercer was scared of fire burning up the collections.
Click to expand...

I would be worried too.
I have seen quite a few antique, classic car, farm & tobacco equipment collections destroyed by fire, albeit they were kept in the now very few and dwindling but great old tobacco sheds here in CT and the whole valley.
But that's what we do here...did.
 
When I searched for info on my F. Dickinson Cast Steel Warranted draw knife I ended up on https://www.davistownmuseum.org/phototour.html
It looks like interesting place to stop by on the way to Acadia National Park

Talking about National Parks 2 places come to my mind when it comes to woodworking. Those are not tools museums, however they had an impact on the way I think about wood material. First, https://www.nps.gov/yose/learn/historyculture/indian-village-of-the-ahwahnee.htm for their use of cedar bark as a building material. Second https://www.nps.gov/cagr/index.htm had small exhibit about mesquite tree as a source of food and tools.
I have not researched it yet but knowing how hard mesquite is I would like to try funky 'S" shaped hatchet haft made from naturally curved mesquite limb
 
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Taking the history a bit farther back.... some may be interested in this documentary.
A Huron settlement is uncovered containing a surprising relic.... just prior to European
Colonization. "The Curse of the Axe: rewriting American History". (better quality on
NetFlix). A really vintage tool conversation....mixed in with Detective work.

Charles
 
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I watched the above video, pretty interesting to find the axe was made by a Basque, carried to Canada and ended up in a Huron village miles from where it came ashore, and of course thousands of miles from where it was made. The only thing that made me wonder is the archeologist involved kept saying it was the first thing in (circa 1510) that could be linked back to Europeans, the first European object found in Canada. I thought the bronze shawl pin and other things found at the Viking settlement at L'Anse Aux Meadows would be the first as that predates this discovery by 500+ years? John
 
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