Tools and equipment are essential to the work of the architects, engineers, and tradespeople who design and build our world. The National Building Museum’s collections include a variety of tools from a wide range of fields and time periods, from a sheet metal bending brake used to shape entire building facades to tiny stamps and stencils used by draftsmen to create intricate architectural drawings.
Tools are highly specialized to a particular trade and very personal depending on the needs and skills of the tradesperson. The tools in the Museum’s collection were primarily donated by the tradesperson who used them or their families, offering a glimpse into the personal stories behind these seemingly common devices.
Woodworking
Woodworking is the skill of making items from wood, such as cabinetry, furniture, wood carving, joinery, carpentry, and woodturning. The foundation of the Museum’s woodworking tool collection was donated by the family of local Maryland finish carpenter, John S. Stubbs, Sr. Stubbs created a large toolbox as his final project as an apprentice in the 1940s, and it held his tools throughout his career. His family donated the toolbox and his complete set of woodworking tools, including planes, hand drills, and saws, to the Museum after his passing in 2011.
Stubb’s career spanned decades, and his tools demonstrate the changes and innovations of the 20th century. Over the course of his career, single-purpose wood planes gave way to metal planes with removable blades, while screwdriver handles shifted from wood to plastic. Measuring tools began as folding wooden rulers, and eventually expanded to include metal tape measures. Stubbs used all these tools in tandem, adding new inventions but holding on to the sturdy tools from his apprenticeship.
Sheet Metal
Sheet metal tradespeople fabricate, assemble, install, and repair products made from thin metal sheets, such as HVAC ductwork, drainpipes, control boxes, roofing, and siding. They work in shops and on construction sites, using specialized tools to cut, bend, and weld materials like steel and aluminum. The Museum’s sheet metal tool collection was donated by sheet metal worker Mark Simpson. Simpson donated his entire tool kit to the Museum, showing the breadth of tools needed for his intricate work.
In addition to snips, hammers, punches, chisels, files, and gouges, Simpson also donated his soldering irons and associated ovens. Before the development of electric soldering irons, the typical soldering iron consisted of a copper block, with an appropriately shaped point, supported on an iron rod and held in a wooden handle. Immediately before use, the iron was heated over a fire or in a charcoal brazier (oven), and it had to be reheated whenever it became too cool. In the 1950s, Simpson made his own ovens (donated along with remains of the coal used to heat them) and tool boxes (still full of tools) out of sheet metal, highlighting his versatility, ingenuity, and skill.
Plaster
All the plaster tools in the Museum collection belonged to the sculptor Frank Basky – you can even see that he carved his initials, FB, into most of the implements. Basky was born in Hungary and immigrated to the United States when he was 15 years old to further his education and training as an artist. He worked on projects for World’s Fairs, sculpted for Hollywood sets while working for 20th Century Fox, and created the gargoyles on the corners of the Chrysler Building in New York City.
Basky moved to Washington, D.C. in 1963 and set up a studio in Hillcrest Heights. His works were exhibited at the Smithsonian, and his Carrara marble bas relief of pianist Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge is in the Chamber of Music Hall of the Library of Congress. He taught sculpture classes in both New York and Camp Springs, Maryland, and continued working until his death in 1979. His collection of hundreds of clay styluses, rakes, loops, and chisels of every size and material imaginable shows the immense variety of tools needed to make intricate plaster and clay designs.
Masonry
Stone masons are skilled craftsmen who cut, shape, and set natural or artificial stone (brick, marble, granite, limestone) to build or repair structures like walls, patios, bridges, and monuments. The masonry tools in the Museum’s collection belonged to the Thompson family, including Vincent Thompson and his son Andrew, both of whom were masons. The tools include pointers, jointers, chisels, hammers, and trowels.
The donation also includes Vincent Thompson’s 1894 work ledger. On each page, he lists the client, type of work completed (for example, chimney repair or wall construction), how many days each job took, and the number of bricks, stones, and other materials used. Through Thompson’s ledger, tools, travel Bible, and other family records, the Museum can reconstruct the day-to-day work and life of a 19th century stonemason.
Power Tools
Many of the Museum’s hand- and electric-powered tools were originally acquired for the temporary Do-It-Yourself exhibition, and were eventually formally added to the permanent collection. This collection illustrates the evolution of personal tools over time, starting with human-powered tools such as hand brace bits and foot treadle lathes and jigsaws, and then moving to electric-powered saws and drills as technology became more accessible outside of factories.
One of the oldest tools in the collection is a handmade pump drill. This is a simple hand-powered device used to impart a rapid rotating motion to a rod (the spindle or drill shaft) to drill holes in wood or metal. To use, the shaft is first turned by hand so that the cord wraps around the top as much as possible, and the board is in the highest position. A smooth downward pressure is exerted on the board, causing the shaft to rapidly spin. Once the bottom is reached, the pressure is relieved. The weight then keeps the shaft spinning so that the cord winds again around it, in the opposite sense, pulling the board up to the starting position, much like a yo-yo or button whirligig.
Black & Decker was founded in 1910 by S. Duncan Black and Alonzo G. Decker, initially as a machine shop in Baltimore, Maryland. They patented the first portable electric drill with a pistol grip in 1917, establishing a tradition of innovation in consumer power tools. Meanwhile, in Chicago, Edmond Michel developed the first electric handsaw in 1923. Michael and his business partner Joseph W. Sullivan continued to improve upon the design, which eventually became the popular handheld circular saw known as the “Skilsaw.” The Museum’s power tool collection follows the growth of many American companies such as these and the ways power tools have evolved over the last century to become fixtures in homes across the country.
Drafting Tools
Architects, engineers, and draftsmen used drafting tools to create architectural drawings and schematics before the computer age. Such precise work required a vast array of tools including pens, pencils, scales, protractors, and compasses, which often came in sets for ease of use and transportation.
One of the Museum’s sets of drafting tools belonged to architects at Ritterbush Associates, a firm founded by Arthur Van Horn, a prominent North Dakota architect active between 1880 and 1930. Horn was originally an independent architect, but soon the firm evolved to include brothers Robert and Clarence Ritterbush (Van Horn & Ritterbush Brothers, 1920-1931). Following Van Horn’s death, the firm became known as the Ritterbush Brothers (1931-1974) and eventually Ritterbush Associates. Robert H. Ritterbush, son of Van Horn’s partner, was an architect at the firm and sold it in 1990 when he semi-retired. The books and drafting tools he gifted to the Museum in 2001 document decades of work across these firms and reflect changing architectural and engineering standards over time.
To conduct research using the Tool collection, please fill out a Research Request Form. You can learn more about other collections held at the Museum by searching our online database here!