A History of the Amateur Woodworking Movement
A Decade-by-Decade Narrative of Amateur Woodworking in America From 1900 to 2000
Notes on Woodworker's Manuals:
The Significant and the Significance of Their Cultural RoleAn Online Book -- Raymond McInnis -- Amateur Woodworker
Home Contents Appendices Authors Documents
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
Email me at rgmc36@comcast.net
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on its pages.The links directly lead to webpages on "Master" authors of Woodworker's Manuals
Woodworker Manual Author #1: Mario Dal Fabbro -- Promoter of "Modernist" Furniture Designs
Woodworker Manual Author(s) #2: Percy A Wells and John Hooper -- Patrician Manual Writers
Woodworker Manual Author #3: John Gerald Shea -- Intrepid Writer of Woodworker's Manuals for Furniture of America's Ethnic Cultures
Woodworker Manual Author #4: Lester Margon -- Master Illustrator of Museum Furniture
Woodworker Manual Author #5: Franklin H Gottshall -- A Little Recognized "Classic" in Woodworking Annals
Woodworker Manual Author# 6: Walt Durbahn: From Master Carpenter to School Principal to Lexicographer to TV Star
Woodworker Manual Author (Corporate -- Stanley Tools) #7: How to Work With Tools and Wood 1927 & 1952
Woodworker's Manuals # 8: Under Construction
Woodworker's Manuals #9: Arthur Wakeling and the Formation of the National Homeworkshop Guild in the 1930s
Woodworker Manual Author #10: R J DeCristoforo -- "Dean" of Manual Writers
Woodworker Manual Author #11: Aldren Auld Watson, Self-Taught Artist, Self-Taught Woodworker
Woodworker Manual Author #12:
Woodworker Manual Author #13: "Library Works On Woodwork"
Woodworker Manual Author #14: Herman Hjorth: The Woodworker as Renaissance Man: Teacher, Historian,Technologist
Woodworker Manual Author #15: Woodworker Manual Author (Corporate -- Stanley Tools)
Woodworker Manual Author #16: Jacques Andre Roubo L'Art du Menuisier 1769
Woodworker Manual Author #17: Charles Holtzapffel Turning and Mechanical Manipulation 4 volumes 1846 - 1879
Appendix 5: Headnote for Bibliography of a Century of Woodworking Manuals
(under construction)Any book that is gives info on woodworking, whether how-to-do-it -- "processes" -- or projects to build -- "products" -- is, in my rubric, a woodworker's manual. Each chapter of my online history of the amateur woodworking movement includes an annotated list of woodworker's manuals published during that same decade.
(Links to manuals also given below. In addition, scroll further down this page to the chart that shows the numbers of woodworker's manuals published over a century, decade-by-decade.)
One vexing research problem in this history of amateur woodworking -- for the first half of the 20th century -- concerns how amateur woodworkers found out about what manuals existed and how to get access to them. While John Tebbel's 4-volume A History of Book Publishing in the United States (New York: Bowker, 1978) is outstanding as a source for topics on mainstream publications, fiction, general nonfiction, and the like, for specialized areas like woodworking or cookbooks, coverage is sketchy, at best. John -- he's a friend -- does discuss bookstores, and other types of distribution, such as newsstands and books sold in large department stores such as Macy's, he does not mention speciality fields.
We know nonetheless that woodworking books were published in considerable numbers, which suggests that publishers saw them as marketable. Further, starting in 1936, the Index to Handicrafts was used widely in public libraries, and chapters of woodworking books are well represented among the books contained
Likewise, seeing an additional source of profit, periodicals dedicated to woodworking such as Home Craftsman, (1931-1965) each month published a full page listing of manuals and other types of books from many publishers that readers could order through Home Craftsman.
(Further, in going through Seattle Public Library's volumes of Home Craftsman, evidence readily exists that a librarian checked Seattle Public's holdings of woodworker's manuals against the Home Craftsman lists.)
It's obvious, too, that something happened in publishing, probably that the volume of books published on handicraft topics, including woodworking, became much larger because after 1974, the Index to Handicrafts reduced itself to exclusively indexing the chapters of books -- i.e., dropping periodicals entirely, and then -- after 1984 -- simply ceased publication, suggesting that the volume of books published had become too great, at least for a strictly volunteer operation that the Index to Handicrafts always was.
Taken together, then all these factors show that woodworker's manuals were published in plentiful numbers -- -- but a lack of bookstores in the first half of the 20th century made access and purchase of these woodworker's manuals problematical. In contrast, in the second half of the 20th century, as bookstores moved into smaller and smaller urban areas, the possibility of woodworkers access to woodworker's manuals became much easier.
After 1976, when woodworker's periodicals such as Fine Woodworking and American Woodworker emerged, book clubs suddenly appeared along with these magazines and began advertising in issues of these perioidcals. (I'll have to investigate the woodworker's book clubs.)
And finally, used bookstores became rich sources of books on woodworking, and in this age of the Internet, buying used woodworker's manuals is possible through outlets such as Alibris, Barnes and Noble , and Amazon.
Random notes on the historicity of woodworker's manuals.
Until I launched on this project, the only "old" woodworker's manuals I was familiar with were Franklin Gottshall's 1937 How to Design Period Furniture, R J DeCristoforo's 1953 Power Tool Woodworking for Everyone, and the 1950s Delta manuals, all with the title How to Get the Most Out of Your [?]. (All of the latter I owned because of the vintage tools I owned.) However, once I began working on this history of woodworking project, it dawned on me that maybe woodworker's manuals were worth examining.
(In my earlier career, when I wrote several books on historical subjects, I became convinced that -- to understand a given historical period -- looking at the documents contemporary to the period was essential.)
Using the digitized bibliographical database, Worldcat, I began assembling a list of workworker's manuals. As the list was constructed, I began either borrowing the actual volumes from libraries or purchasing my own copies. Slowly it began to dawn on me what these books contained, veritable treasure chest of memories of what amateur woodworkers were confronted with, decade by decade, including whether they used hand tools or power tools, what projects they preferred, etc. Next I began to make notes -- annotations -- on manuals that I considered more significant, and scanning images of recommended projects, the text of "prefaces", "tables of contents", and the like.
Soon the list became formidably long, suggesting divisions by decade. Below are links to each decade, and exhibits of how far I have progressed.
Finally, the Google Print Service is beginning to payoff "bigtime". Books and Periodicals, vitrually hidden away on the shelves of large libraries are increasingly available on the Internet in fulltext, digitized versions. For example, Manual Arts Press, a publisher catering primarily to the Industrial Arts, but to home craftsmen as well. Google Print has uploaded the Manual Arts 1915 60-page bibliography of its books and selected books of other publishers: Books on the Manual Arts . For example, The Manual Arts biblography describes as the best and most comprehensive book on cabinfetmaking" this woodworker's manual designed primarily for the furniture manufacturing trade, Percy A. Wells and John Hooper's Modern Cabinetwork Furniture and Fitments: An Account of the Theory and Practice in the Production of all Kinds of Cabinetwork and Furniture With Chapters on the Growth and Progress of Design and Construction Illustrated by Over 1000 Practical Workshop Drawings Photographs and Original Designs London: Batsford; Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1909. ca 380 pages,
A Century of Woodworker's Manuals and Reprints of Selected Documents
1. Woodworker's Manuals 1900 and Before
2.Woodworker's Manuals 1901-1910
3. Woodworker's Manuals 1911-1920
Document 1: P H Adams Reclining Chair May 1902
Document 2: A L Hall Workshop at Home 1908
Document 3: H H Windsor How to Make a Morris Chair
Document 6: a 1904 article heralding "The Significance of the Arts and Crafts Movement for Woodworking"
4. Woodworker's Manuals 1921-1930
Document 4: Otter Morris Chair 1914 (reprinted 1923)
Document 9: Notes on Progress of the Use of Electricity in the Industrial and Domestic Field" 1921
Document 11: Paul V. Woolley's "The Importance of Projects in the Education of Boys" 1926
5. Woodworker's Manuals 1931-1940
Document 12: The formation of the National Home Workshop Guild 1933
Document 10: Hobbs Working With Tools 1935
6. Woodworker's Manuals 1941-1950
Document 8: Popular Science "How the Hammer, Saw and Try-Square Can Satisfy" 1946
7. Woodworker's Manuals 1951-1960
Document 13: Gordon B Ashmead "Precision Makes the Shopsmith" 1951
Document 5: Creden "America Rediscovers Its Hands" 1953
8. Woodworker's Manuals 1961-1970
9. Woodworker's Manuals 1971 -1980
10. Woodworker's Manuals 1981-1990
Document 7: Mark Duginske, "Thoughts on a Working System." 1983