The Toolemera Press

Links
Links of all sorts, vaguely organized.

Old Tools

• The Oldtools eMail List, the penultimate meeting place for people who appreciate tools and techniques of bygone trades. Pull a chair up to the Porch and set a spell. You can Sign Up Here or read the Oldtools FAQ.
• The Old Tools Shop, courtesy of Wiktor Kruc is a must see. Constantly updated, containing bits of wisdom, humor, downloads, stuff to read, etc and best of all... it's all about Old Tools, by and for the Oldtools community. Guests welcome but be warned, it's addictive.
• MWTCA - Mid-West Tool Collectors Association. Ignore the Mid-West appelation, this group covers the U.S. from coast to coast. Local meetings and a quarterly publication, The Gristmill make this a must-have for any fan of tools and trades.
• EAIA - Early American Industries Association. The primary place to go for information on tools, machines, trades-people, trades and industry. The quarterly publication, The Chronicle, offers scholarly as well as avocational reading.
• The Society for the Preservation and Study of Wooden Planes. If you like wooden planes, this is a must see. Even if you don't, take a look anyhow.
• DATAMP - The Directory of American Tools and Patents. The place on the Web to go for information on patented machines and hand tools.
• Holzbearbeitung mit Handwerkzeugen. To see how the other side of the ocean does things.
• Ambacht & Gereedschap. What's happening in Holland.
• The Workshop Pages. Steve Longley's home page at The Old Tools Shop has some great links to a wide variety of tools and trades related web sites.
• Philip A. Cannon II. His site for Measuring Devices, Calculating Devices, the Rufus Porter history and more. Well worth a visit.
• The Saw Set Collectors Resource. Mark Conley's most excellent resource for everything you wanted to know about sawsets!
• The Encyclopedia of Diderot & d'Alembert. A collaborative translation project hosted by The University of Michigan. No graphics, but an excellent translation of the text of Diderot's Encyclopedia. Light reading for a rainy day.
• Robert Sorby. Yes, The Robert Sorby of edge tool fame. The company history as told by the source.
• Marples. The tool Marples, not Miss Marples.
• A Millers Falls Homepage. The excellent site produced by Randy Roeder. Everything you always wanted to know about the Millers Falls Company.

New Old Tools: Modern Makers of Tradtional Tools

• Philly Planes: Traditional Wooden Planes Made in England. Drool worthy and affordable.

Woodworking

• Chistopher Schwarz' Woodworking Magazine Weblog. Handtools, machinery, traditional and modern methods of work. A bit of practicality, philosophy, history and humour rolled into one weblog. Don't just sit there, subscribe already.
• Adam Cherubini's Arts &Mysteries Blog. A must-see Blog for those interested in a realistic and practical look at the origins of traditional woodworking techniques. Or if you want to be seduced away from the Dark Side of Electron Driven Tailed Daemons and introduced to the pleasures of working wood in quiet and comfort.
• UK Woodshops Forum. If you have not yet visited this forum what are you waiting for?
• Cornish Workshop. Alf's corner of the world and well worth visiting on a regular basis.

Ephemera

• American Memory: An American Time Capsule. Three Centuries of Broadsides and Other Printed Ephemera. The Library of Congress. Selections from the Printed Ephemera Collection of The Library of Congress. Spend some time searching the online collection for images of trades, tradespeople or what-have-you. See also the Introduction to Printed Ephemera Collection for a comprehensive introduction to the world of ephemera.
• The Ephemera Society of America. The name says it all.
• The Ephemera Society. The British side of the coin.
• The Digital Initiative of The University of Oxford. An excellent set of links that includes: The John Johnson Collection of Printed Ephemera (the most drool worthy collection of printed ephemera, courtesy of John Johnson, who was the Printer to the University of Oxford; The Internet Library of Early Journals (take a look at their run of The Builder, 1843-1852).
• The National Postal Museum: Collecting Resources and References. Links to most of the major online public access resources on conservation and preservation of books and ephemera.
• A Is For Advertising Cover. Concise introduction to the Advertising Cover, AKA: an envelope with printed advertisements. One of my favorite forms of tool ephemera.

Photography

• Photohistory, Andrew J. Morris' site provides a very helpful introduction to dating photographs and postcards.
• Albumen Photographs: History, Science and Preservation. "Presenting the art and science of albumen printing, this site brings together 19th Century technical instruction, contemporary research, an online forum for conservation treatment and a wealth of images."
• The American Museum of Photography: Preserving and Protecting Photographs; A Buyers Guide. Valuable and basic review of the how's and why's of preservation for vintage photographs.

Research Resources

• A2A: Access to Archives. One of my favorite haunts, this is the gateway to searching many of the university and local archives of Great Britain.

Museums & Societies

• Get SHOT (The Society for the History of Technology). Self explanatory.The American Antiquarian Society. Some fascinating online exhibitions plus an online finding aid to their holdings. An excellent source for researching genealogy as well as the history of trades