An Archaeology of Tools: The Tool Collections of the Davistown Museum - Paperback

by H. G. Brack (Author)

An Archaeology of Tools: The Tool Collection of the Davistown Museum describes its ever-expanding inventory of hand tools, which includes historically important tools from many sources. The tools in the museum exhibition and Tools Teach education program serve as a primary resource for information about the diversity of tool- and steelmaking strategies and techniques before and during the Industrial Revolution. They provide information about the locations of the manufacturers of the tools used by American artisans from the colonial period until the late 19th century. The museum collection is the source of many of the images included in the publication "Tools Teach: An Iconography of American Hand Tools," which explores the tool forms of early American industries and the classic period of American toolmaking that followed. Many of the tools in the museum collection are also illustrated and discussed in other texts in the museum's "Hand Tools in History" publication series. Most tools are available, often for hands-on inspection, to museum visitors and students participating in the museum's Tools Teach School Tool Loan Program.

Author Biography

H. G. "Skip" Brack is the founder and curator of the Davistown Museum and proprietor of and buyer for the Jonesport Wood Company, which deals in antique and used tools and includes the famed Liberty Tool Company in Liberty, Maine. Artifacts and information that Brack encountered on his tool buying expeditions in the attics, cellars, and workshops of coastal New England piqued his curiosity, raising questions about its early inhabitants and the tools they used. When he discovered that the information he sought to answer his questions was sketchy, inaccurate, or undocumented, Brack sought and scoured primary and secondary sources on the history of early coastal New England, focusing on the origins and composition of tools used by early New Englanders and New England First Nation communities. His publications include the Davistown Museum seven volume Hand Tools in History series, Norumbega Reconsidered: Mawooshen and the Wawenoc Diaspora, and much of the text on the information-rich museum website www.davistownmuseum.org. Brack holds a B.A. from the University of Massachusetts and M.A. from the University of Colorado. His knowledge of early tools and Maine/New England maritime history makes him a sought after lecturer and consultant. Brack, the museum, and his tool stores have been featured in Yankee, Downeast, and Bangor Metro magazines, the Boston Globe, an Associated Press article that appeared world-wide, Maine Public Broadcasting Network's Maine Experience, and the Martha Stewart television show. He lives and works in Bar Harbor and Liberty, Maine, with his wife, Judith Bradshaw Brown.