Program

Public Programs: America's Historical and Cultural Organizations: Implementation Grants

Period of Performance

5/1/2011 - 4/30/2016

Funding Totals

$340,000.00 (approved)
$321,443.65 (awarded)


Shaping America: Machines and Machinists at Work

FAIN: GI-50286-11

American Precision Museum, Inc. (Windsor, VT 05089-1312)
Carrie Brown (Project Director: August 2010 to October 2016)

Implementation of a permanent exhibit and related programs exploring how precision manufacturing influenced the course of American history and emphasized motivations, rapid industrialization, U.S. emergence as a world power, and the development of consumer culture.

The American Precision Museum is housed in the 1846 Robbins & Lawrence Armory, a National Historic Landmark, where in the mid to late 19th century, a group of inventors and machinists perfected the tools and techniques of precision manufacturing. Our project will create a new, long-term exhibition and related programs that explore the themes of innovation and work, and the influence of precision manufacturing on the course of American history. Highly skilled workers produced new machinery that helped drive rapid industrialization, the emergence of the united States as a world power, and the development of the consumer culture. The project will take place over three years from May 2011 to April 2014 and the new exhibition, titled Shaping America: Machines and Machinists at Work, will open in May 2014.