Winterthur Musum - The Dominy Collection

Winterthur Museum - The Dominy Collection

Added to the Reference Desk is a link to the Winterthur Museum - The Dominy Collection. If you have the opportunity to visit Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library, you have to do so. If not, you can peruse an excellent online tour of the Museum and the Dominy Collection. Who were the Dominy family?

"The Dominy collections at Winterthur tell the story of three generations of craftsmen in East Hampton, New York between 1762 and 1852. The Dominy family made and repaired furniture, clocks, watches, and a wide variety of farm and household equipment for their family and neighbors. This extraordinary collection of tools and furniture, demonstrate craftwork and community at a time when Americans were finding their places as citizens of the new republic and participants in a young, dynamic, industrializing economy." © Winterthur Museum Online

The collection houses one of the few extent collections of period American tools, benches and patterns. The online tool collection is an education unto itself and not to be missed particularly if you are a fan of the history of wooden planes, aka Rhykenology. The collection houses both woodworking tools as well as the tools and equipment of the clock maker. Oh, and the furniture and clocks the Dominy family made as well.