Hello, I have been working with a Midwest living history museum, building primitive furniture for them from 1840. I have been doing a lot of research on the furniture they want, the materials that would have been used from the area as well as hardware and techniques. The rooms that I am working on are a temporary school room and the local woodworker that made most of the furniture. Are there any websites with pictures or books that have actual pictures, not someone's recreation of what they think of the furniture from the 1840's. When I google antique primitive furniture from that time, I get a lot of manufactures renditions, distressed and finished. the furniture I have to make has to be considered new from back then. I know I wont find pictures of new (not distressed) furniture. Just looking for actual pictures of furniture, designs, styles and the way they were built. I'm not looking for Victorian or styles of furniture from the east coast city's back then. There is not much out there showing what I'm looking for. This is the beginnings of a new Midwestern town. Here is a picture of some of the furniture that I have made. I have also in the past, researched and made all the double hung windows for the building as they would have been made back then.
Welcome, sounds fascinating. We like our photos full size: You can still go back & select 'Edit', then 'Other Choices' & make them all full size.
Just because I know they have a furniture collection, the Henry Ford Museum (now just The Henry Ford) came to mind. One thing I found: https://www.thehenryford.org/collections-and-research/digital-collections/sets/101151/
HaHaHa, I know what your saying. But since this building held the temporary school, they wanted benches. That and the teacher setting up the room said it teaches the kids to sit up straight. Ouch!
Sister Dorothy had an even better method: she'd walk behind me, slouching -- bend her forefinger and screw it into my back! Worked! Not to malign Sister Dorothy. She knew exactly how to do it so that it irritated, but did not hurt me.
A good starting place might be the digital archives of the Library of Congress - surely you will find photograph collections or regional records that would have useful images or illustrations. The pieces you have made look great!
Charles Hayward: Antique or Fake? The Making of Old Furniture provides a good discussion of the history of construction techniques, with detailed illustrations. You may find the most detailed information in books and articles that discuss how to recognize fakes, and the restoration of antique furniture.