A Museum of Early American Tools (Americana)

Sloan was. Great artist and a decent author too. As a professional archaeologist I have found this book to be most informative regarding tools and their usage. I would say that his illustrations are much more useful than a photograph would be. My field work with old structures in historical archaeology has been enlightened by this book.

Sloane loved his world of early American history, nature and folklore and his works welcome visitors to explore his world with him. Sloane was a significant collecter and historian of early American tools, but he doesn't write academically; rather, he writes as a friendly host who wants his guests to enjoy their visit, sharing his admiration of the tools, their materials, their makers and their users.This is a delightful and informative synthesis of early American history, traditional woodworking and folklore. If you've enjoyed Eric Sloane before, I think you won't be disappointed with this work. If you've never read him before, this is a great example of his work.This is well-illustrated by the author, with multiple sketches of each type of tool and descriptions that explain the use, and narrate the history of, the tools. I found this book enjoyable to read and use as reference. If I were to visit any of the historic interpretive or static museums of early American life, I think this is a book I'd take with me.

I got this for my spouse for Father’s Day. Although it doesn’t appear at first to hold much info because of its size I can reassure you that is not the case!! This book is chock full of information and the illustrations are beautiful! My husband has commented several times to me how interesting and useful all the information is. We would highly recommend this and other books by this gifted and knowledgeable author!

Each item accurately depicted, excellent attention to detail, I can make reproductions from them easily. Elegant hand script used for notes. Historically accurate content, cleverly grouped. Well done, thank you.

An excellent reference for the range of historical tools. It is not an exhaustive reference of the range of tools or their variations but it provides a visual example of nearly every class of tool found in the colonial period. It has filled in a lot of gaps in my understanding of colonial industry.

This book. This book was a gift for my boyfriend for Christmas. Not only did he read it, he's now read it many times. I've also read it. The book is extremely well written and goes through the history of American craftsmanship and tools. Different ways, in different regions, different woods, etc. This book is perfect for anyone who may have an interest in building their own tools one day, and even if you don't -- it's a beautifully written history of Americans and our evolution as farmers and hard work being done throughout the century. Full of discoveries and lost trades/ideas, I would give this book to anyone and know that I had made a solid choice. Even for someone who wouldn't normally read this kind of book, I found it to be enlightening and fun to read.

This is one of Eric Sloane's BRILLIANT history books. Everything he published is worth getting, for young and old. Beautiful pen and ink drawings, well thought out, show you early American ingenuity in clear layouts. These mass-market paperbacks are superb in every way. Highly recommended.

It's fascinating to see all the clever tools that craftsmen used to use that we don't really see anymore, and it's a shame that many of these tools have been lost to antiquity because they're often superior to the mass-produced contemporary implements we use in modern times. This book contains a wealth of information that is extremely helpful to an aspiring woodworker, as well as someone interested in the historical values of such tools. The illustrations are very well done and the text does a good job explaining how each tool was used. I greatly recommend this.