A signature installation at Winterthur further explores historic craft, trade, and lifeways
A reinstallation of With Hammer in Hand: A Story of American Craft at Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library refreshes and updates the story of the Dominy family, skilled craftsmen who worked and traded in East Hampton, Long Island, in the 18th and early 19th centuries.
The updated exhibition presents a more detailed, nuanced view of the Dominys as vital members of a vibrant, diverse community, which included English colonists, members of the Shinnecock and Montaukett communities, enslaved people, and free people of color, who earned their living from offshore fishing and farming.
“The Dominys reflected and helped shape the special regional identity of their community through furniture, clocks, and other objects that may appear to our eyes as common, simple, and practical, but they are beautifully designed and executed,” said Josh Lane, the Lois F. and Henry S. McNeil Curator of Furniture at Winterthur. “We want visitors to understand the Dominy craftsmen as members of a multigenerational family living under one roof with their wives and children and apprentices, and as a vital part of their community where everyone turned to them for all sorts of woodworking and small metalsmithing needs.”
Three generations of the family—Nathaniel Dominy IV (1737–1812), Nathaniel Dominy V (1770–1852), and Felix Dominy (1800–1868)—worked in the shops from the mid-18th century through about 1840. In the patchwork of communities that made up eastern Long Island, they built houses, barns, and windmills; supplied furniture, clocks, and coffins; repaired hay rakes, wagon wheels, and spinning wheels; mended watches; and helped maintain civic buildings such as schoolhouses.
With Hammer in Hand displays nearly all the contents of the Dominys’ woodworking, clock making, and watch repair shops—including lathes, workbenches, and more than 1,000 hand tools. It also contains examples of furniture and tall clocks as well as extensive shop records and family papers.
In addition, it features short video interviews with Charles F. Hummel, curator emeritus at Winterthur and the preeminent scholar of the Dominys, outlining how the collection survived and how it came to Winterthur as well as video excerpts on how the collection continues to intrigue and inspire craftspeople. A new floor-to-ceiling mural of a saltwater marsh situates the Dominys in the seaside community of their time.
Together, the tools, shop products, and written records tell a more complete story about the practices and roles of skilled craftsmen in preindustrial America than any other single grouping of artifacts and documents that have survived from this period.
With Hammer in Hand: A Story of American Craft is a permanent exhibition at Winterthur and is included as part of general admission.
ABOUT WINTERTHUR MUSEUM, GARDEN & LIBRARY
Winterthur—known worldwide for its preeminent collection of American decorative arts, naturalistic garden, and research library for the study of American art and material culture— offers a variety of tours, exhibitions, programs, and activities throughout the year. Admission includes the Winterthur Garden and galleries.
Winterthur, located on Route 52, six miles northwest of Wilmington, Delaware, and five miles south of U.S. Route 1, is closed on Mondays (except during Yuletide) and on Thanksgiving and Christmas Day. Museum hours are 10:00 am–5:00 pm, Tuesday–Sunday. $20 for adults; $18 for students and seniors; $6 for ages 2–11. Memberships are available for free and discounted admission. Winterthur is committed to accessible programming for all. For information, including special services, call 800.448.3883, 302.888.4600, or TTY 302.888.4907, or visit winterthur.org.
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Contact: Mark Nardone
Mnardone@winterthur.org
302.888.4803 O 302.500.2559 M