HandMade Tools
from the CCHS permanent collection
Opening July 2019 in the Museum Gallery
“...when we muse on historic tools as symbols, we are always analyzing the romance of human progress.”
--Eric Sloane from A Museum of Early American Tools, 1964 |
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During the 18th and 19th centuries, in pre-industrial society, work was accomplished with hand-made tools and personal muscle power. The tools in this exhibition represent the agriculturally-based economy of Columbia County and every day tasks and chores of its rural inhabitants. Family members worked together at a variety of chores to ensure the success of running a farm or family business that included agricultural production, food preparation, household care and animal husbandry. Beyond the function of each of these tools, there is a beauty in their form and manipulation of materials. These historic objects--primarily tools of farming--are part of Columbia County's material culture.
"...and here was wood formed into a special kind of
tactile sculpture made to be felt with the hand." -- Christian Barman from Oxford History of Technology, N.D.
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