Dominy Shops September 13, 2009

The Dominy Clock Shop and Woodworking Shop are reconstructions of shops used by the Dominy family, four generations of craftsmen who worked in East Hampton, New York, from the mid 1700s to the mid 1800s. Historic photographs and architectural drawings document the working environment of these rural Long Island artists. Surviving objects representative of their work -- clocks, chairs, case pieces, looking glasses, and tables -- reveal their local clientele's taste for conservatively styled, well-crafted household furnishings. Displayed with those objects are the templates, machinery and more than 800 tools used to produce them, a collection that provides a rare opportunity to glimpse the typical working environment of rural craftsmen more than two centuries ago.