A History of the Amateur Woodworking Movement A Decade-by-Decade Narrative of Amateur Woodworking in America From 1900 to 2000 Chapter 3: 1911 - 1920 An Online Book -- Raymond McInnis -- Amateur Woodworker

 

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Glossary Intro and Glossary Annexes A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Narrative Chapters Chap 1 Chap 2 Chap 3 Chap 4 Chap 5 Chap 6 Chap 7 Chap 8 Chap 9 Chap 10 Chap 11 Chap 12 Headnote for Manuals    Manuals by Decade 1900-before 1901-1910 1911-1920 1921-1930 1931-1940 1941-1950 1951-1960 1961-1970 1971-1980 1981-1990 1991-2000 2001-later

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Chapter 3: 1911-1920 3: 2. Magazines and newspapers with woodworking content; woodworker's manuals

Magazines:

Both Popular Mechanics and Popular Science [create links later], very successfully launched in the 19th century, contained articles on woodworking, either about tools and/or projects for woodworkers.

The periodical Amateur Work (Boston) died in 1907. Gustav Stickley's The Craftsman ceased publication in 1915, when Stickely went bankrupt. 
I discovered that (selected?) volumes of The  Craftsman have evidently been uploaded on the Web by Google Print. Click here for a pdf version of the volume for 1907.

At the same time, unfortunately, I also discovered that the details about the availability of the individual issues these volumes seem to be unnecessarily confusing. For example, part of the "accidental discovery" noted above is this article by Gustav Stickley:  "Home Training in Cabinet Work: New Series of Practical Talks On Structural Woodworking" -- I am working on the process to upload a version of Stickley's "Home Training in Cabinet Work". Click here for Stickley's 1903 outline justifying the "Structural Style in Cabinet-Making".  

 

In 1905, Popular Mechanics began its annual, Shop Notes, and continued its publication until the 1930s. That Lee Valley, the Canadian-based woodwork and garden tool distributor, saw fit to reprint and sell these volumes in their stores and mail order catalogs in the 21st century speaks "volumes" about Shop Notes persistent usefulness for American "mechanics" and othe craftsman such as woodworkers. (The advertisement in the image on the left comes from a 1906 issue of Publishers Weekly.   Click here for a Google Books pdf version of a 1921 volume of Shopnotes.)

Woodworker's Manuals:

Click here for a selected and partially annotated list of woodworker's manuals published between 1911 and 1920.

One of the most prominent publishers of books on woodworking for that era is Manual Arts Press; click on the link for a copy of the company's 1915 60 page catalog. For statistics on number of woodworker's manuals published decade by decade, see the manuals access page . More and more frequently, copies of woodworker's manuals are being digitized and uploaded to the Internet by Google Books.

I try to keep up with these events, and indicate appropriately the titles of woodworker's manuals that can be read on the Web, but it is a large job, so I ask that readers inform me if they encounter web-based manuals. 

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