Eric sloane museum american tools

The permanence of old construction techniques isn't wanted or needed in many cases. Have you ever tried to run wires or pipes through an old log cabin or insulate one better? It's a pain, they're not built for such modern necessities. Oh, they can be fitted with them, but it's cumbersome compared to the ease of a frame built house.

Another thing to remember is that Sloane is seeing the very best of the past. If it wasn't, it rusted or rotted away by the time he got to looking.

So take his romantic view with a grain of salt. Not all workmen today do a shoddy job or use crappy materials. Be willing to pay for quality, though. In this case, the tools that the Colonists of the US used, about mid 's to early 's. Many a fantasy author who writes about low tech worlds could benefit by reading this book. Nov 13, Sheryl Tribble rated it really liked it. A very short book that gives the reader a lot to think about.

Even when the metal tool heads were purchased, for instance, from the local blacksmith and into the industrial era, people made their own handles, meaning there were not merely regional variations, but variations between families living in the same neighborhood. I was also intrigued at how late some developments came about, and how different some common tools looked -- hammers or axes, for instance -- well into the middle of the ninet A very short book that gives the reader a lot to think about.

I was also intrigued at how late some developments came about, and how different some common tools looked -- hammers or axes, for instance -- well into the middle of the nineteenth century.

May 10, Cheryl is busier irl atm. My dad's the carpenter, not me, but I still love Sloane's books. They're history, to be sure, but not about the dead celebrities' personalities and peccadillos, but rather about how relatively ordinary people actually lived. This one kept me bemused, though. How many of these tools did Pa Ingalls really carry around the prairies in the covered wagon?

Sloane talks about 'the Early Americans' as if they were all as settled and prosperous as Almanzo Wilder's family, but surely they weren't Befor My dad's the carpenter, not me, but I still love Sloane's books. Before you argue, yes, I know I'm talking about two different eras, separated by at least a century, but I opine that the question is still valid. I just wanted to use specific, widely known examples. It is entertaining reading through Eric Sloane's written and artistic survey of these tools in clear, accurate, detail such as diagrams of use, cutaways, or ghost-outline showing how long handles could range between.

Reminds me almost how you might tour a museum based on category. It only takes a few hours reading depending on your pace and how well you muse over drawings. Sloane also notes the quality of tools and how every individual imbued variations in crafting both in tools and the mediu It is entertaining reading through Eric Sloane's written and artistic survey of these tools in clear, accurate, detail such as diagrams of use, cutaways, or ghost-outline showing how long handles could range between.

Sloane also notes the quality of tools and how every individual imbued variations in crafting both in tools and the medium they were used on, such as stone and wood. I wish he included references for work at least in my edition when he cites other facts or makes mention of how others interpret uses.

This is my biggest complaint. Sloane does, however, include an index for easy reference. Perfect for anyone interested in American history, tool-based Americana, craftsmanship, methods for colonial and early US architecture, perhaps artists, and technically-oriented people. Also makes a great gift. Jan 19, Stephen rated it it was amazing Shelves: reads , agriculture , antiques , artists-work-bio , american-culture-government , museum-studies , reads.

I can recall thumbing through this book several times in life. It wasn't until I opened a bookshop in a rather rural area and I was unable to keep copies of this book in stock, that I took a real read. This book is a treasure chest of knowledge and superb illustration. Now, as our roots are often bulldozed by homogenization, this type of book is so important.

My customers love finding things in their barns and sheds and referring to this to see what it might have done for their farms at one poin I can recall thumbing through this book several times in life. My customers love finding things in their barns and sheds and referring to this to see what it might have done for their farms at one point. I love Sloane's storytelling and obvious fascination with any subject matter he investigates.

This is a really solid primer on really old tools. It mostly covers antiques from up to and precursors of 20th century hand tools, whereas I was hoping for a little more information on 20th century hand tools. I think everything in this book is now replaced by power tools. I like the idea though, that all the same stuff was done for hundreds of years with tools made by the user - I'm inspired to dig out some of the hand-me-down hand tools I've had lying around and put them to use.

For what it is, it is very good a little less than 5 stars, more than 4. Sloane was a remarkably able and detail-oriented illustrator whose passion was colonial America, who lived in an era of rising American expectations, when the origin myth of America stepped in legion with a growing sense of American exceptionalism, when the United States was almost synonymous with technical innovation and genius, when America's past was seen as the reason for its moral and cultural superiority.

Sloane was For what it is, it is very good a little less than 5 stars, more than 4. Sloane was a firm believer in all of this, and his background allowed him to make the case for American genius better than anyone. As an itinerant sign painter Sloane traveled the country and watched the countryside change from the traditions of centuries into a landscape of machines and economies of scale.

His reaction was a fetishistic relationship to the tools of the past. He viewed them as artifacts of an age of giants, because these tools allowed those pioneers to build a life of radical freedom, to be entirely self-sufficient. This is why this volume is loaded with references to men making the handles to their own tools, to being masters of hauling and lifting, to having a healthier and deeper relationship to the land and the land's abundance. Most of what is presented in these pages remains fine and interesting knowledge, a guide to the forgotten lore of making a living as told through tools.

Some of what is presented is, however, total bushwa and bluster. There is nothing that Sloane loves so much as an opportunity to correct the record, to name some tool that other 'experts' you can hear him scoff when describing their opinions , got wrong, and to wax poetic about the mystic relation of workman to his tools. The opportunity to prove how much smarter he is than the others sometimes overcomes his sense of duty to the reader.

There is a disingenuousness to how Sloane describes the lasting qualities of antique tools and their products. To say -- Wow it sure is weird that this saw has lasted unrusted for so long, is one thing. To offer it as an example of superior colonial craftsmanship is another. To claim that one craftsman built home is a masterpiece of careful construction is one thing.

To pretend that home is a standard example against which we can compare modern homes is another. Yes, of the pre-industrial brace buttons that survived into the s we can see that they were very well constructed. This does not indicate that all brace buttons of that age were equally well built. What Sloane is soft pedaling here is that history has whittled away the sloppily cared for tools, the badly made, those with material flaws and structural imperfections, and then he has further winnowed these high quality survivors to form his collections.

What Sloane has on hand then is a collection of what is already a doubly filtered body, and then, from that, he pulls yet another sampling; the tools that tell the story that he wants to tell about native skill and ingenuity found in colonial America. This is a story that demands only the most unusually well made examples of craftsmanship. Even accounting for that, however, Sloane remains unreliable on other counts. This is a museum of the tools of colonial New England. We don't see the tools that built the slave empire of the American South, or the mercantile empire of the mid-Atlantic.

Neither do we see the tools of everyday domestic life wielded by women, so this is a gendered story as well. This is a fine book. It simply isn't even close to being a representative guide to the past. Aug 15, Kirk rated it it was amazing. I bought this book a few years ago for my dad, and forgot to give it to him. I decided to read it today, and it promptly fell apart. I still read it, but almost every page I turned fell out.

I have seen most of these tools in local museums, historical sites, etc. I half listened most of the time. But half listening really helped me absorb the material in this book. The tools I did recognize I now have a deeper knowledge of. I know more obscure tools as well, and can always reference this book if I need to. Should be fun! This entirely lives up to the title; it's fascinating to see the Iinginuity of early Americans who had to get their work done.

The book consists almost entirely of diagrams of the grouped similar tools pointing out the features, uses and purposes thereof. This was hard to put down before it was completely digested. Dec 17, Peggy rated it liked it. I have no woodworking or farming or building experience but I was fascinated by the tools, professions, and history displayed in this small book. As a Blue Star Museum , we offer free admission to active-duty military personnel and their families.

Visit us on Facebook and Instagram. Beginning May 7th, Community Events. Community Calendar. Art Gallery Calendar. Daffodil Days. Kent CT Farmers Market. Eric Sloane poses in the foyer of the newly opened Eric Sloane Museum.

If you would like to learn more about the history of the Eric Sloane Museum as well as the collection of Eric Sloane paintings housed within, consider Symbols of American Spirit: 50 Years of the Eric Sloane Museum , just released and limited to 50 copies. Symbols of American Spirit is presented in two parts. Using numerous photographs in illustrations, Wil explores the earliest history of the Eric Sloane Museum in part one.

In part two, Wil presents the entire art collection through more than two-dozen full color gallery photographs. The result is at times a playful, at times a profound — but always a fascinating — look at the man, his museum, and his art.