Colonial craftsmen and the beginnings of American industry

Tunis, Edwin, 1897-1973 (Author).

Summary:

The vanished ways of colonial America's skilled craftsmen are vividly reconstructed in this superb book by Edwin Tunis. With incomparable wit and learning, and in over 450 meticulous drawings, the author describes the working methods and products, houses and shops, town and country trades, and individual and group enterprises by which the early Americans forged the economy of the New World. In the tiny coastal settlements, which usually sprang up around a mill or near a tanyard, the first craftsmen set up their trades. The blacksmith, cooper, joiner, weaver, cordwainer, and housewright, working alone or with several assistants, invented their own tools and devised their own methods. Soon they were making products that far surpassed their early models; the American ax was so popular that English ironmongers often labeled their own axes "American" to sell them more readily. In the town squares a colonist could have his bread baked to order, bring in his wig to be curled, have his eyeglasses ground, his medicine prescription filled, or buy snuff for his many pocket boxes. With the thriving trade in "bespoke" or made-to-order work, fine American styles evolved; many of these are priceless heirlooms now. The silverware of Paul Revere and John Coney, redware and Queensware pottery, Poyntell hand-blocked wallpaper, the Kentucky rifle, Conestoga wagon, and the iron grillework still seen in some parts of the South. The author discusses in detail many of the trades which have since developed into important industries, like papermaking, glassmaking, shipbuilding, printing, and metalworking, often reconstructing from his own careful research the complex equipment used in these enterprises. The ingenious, liberty-loving artisans left few written records of their work, and only Mr. Tunis, with his painstaking attention to authentic detail and his vast knowledge, could present such a complete treasury of the way things were done before machines obliterated this phase of early American life.

Record details

ISBN: 0801862280 (paperback)
ISBN: 9780801862281 (paperback)
Physical Description: 159 pages : illustrations ; 28 cm
Edition: Johns Hopkins paperbacks ed.
Publisher: Baltimore, Md. : Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999.

Content descriptions

General Note:

Reprint. Originally published: Cleveland : World Pub. Co., 1965.

Formatted Contents Note:

New world, new ways : British restrictions ; Specialists ; Status ; The apprentice system ; Journeymen ; Masters ; Quality and honesty ; Prices -- Country work : The blacksmith ; The cooper ; The white cooper ; The housewright ; The sawyers ; The joiner ; The miller ; The tanner and currier ; The fuller ; The itinerants ; The cat whipper ; The weaver ; The tailor ; The chandler ; The tinker -- Town shops : The barber and wigmaker ; The baker ; The apothecary ; The hatter ; The eyeglass seller ; The cutler ; The tobacconist ; The hornsmith -- Bespoke work : The town blacksmiths ; The locksmith ; The gunsmith ; The whitesmith ; The plumber ; The pewterer ; The coopersmith ; The silversmith ; The builder ; The cabinetmaker ; The wainwright and the coachmaker ; The bookbinder ; The weaver ; The shoemaker ; The limner -- Group work : The shipwrights ; The chandlers ; The potters ; The block printers ; The letterpress printers -- Manufactories : The papermakers ; The glass blowers ; The braziers ; The clockmakers ; The ironmasters.