The Jonathan Fisher House

The second stop on the New England Tour 2014 was the homestead of Joshua and Julia and Eden, and what a delightful stop it was.  Aside from the fellowship we encountered an overload of learning and experiencing

On our way to dinner the first evening we stopped by the Jonathan Fisher House museum, where Joshua is engaging in a lot of important research and recreation for his upcoming book on this rural Maine polymath.  There was simply too much to see in such a short time, and I am eagerly awaiting the results of Joshua’s research on this remarkable man who was part parson and part inventive genius furniture maker.

Of course one notable item in the collection is this Roman style workbench,

while another is the windmill powered lathe that Joshua is currently reassembling after two centuries of non-use.

Miraculously many of the original turning gouges are still in the collection.

Fisher was many things including an accomplished artist, as these prints from his woodcuts will attest.  I fully expect Joshua to paint a compelling picture of rural inventiveness and creativity from the Maine frontier of two hundred years ago.