On Fri, 05 Jan 2007 21:17:23 -0500, John wrote:

Other than at Williamsburg and Sturbridge, are there any genuine 18th
century lathes in existence elsewhere in North America, preferably ones
that have detailed online photos available for viewing, that one can
look at. I kind of like the idea of peregrinating about the eastern half
of this continent but I just don't have the time to visit more than one
or two distant museums this coming year so I'd like to narrow my search
to the most promising ones. My search is specific to the 18th Century.
My Google and other Internet scrounging has unearthed a bunch of modern
day adaptations but the museum folk I'm working with are very much
concerned about creating as authentic a reproduction as humanly
possible, and for that we need some genuine real articles to emulate.
These historians love their documentation at least as much as their
museum pieces, I'm afraid. ;-) We're not particularly interested in the
"great wheel" lathes but more humble town and village types that were
presumably as common as dirt at one time but which seem not to have
survived in the larger, well known museums.

Check out Lindsay publications online. That's just about made to
order for what you're talking about. Not only could you buy detailed
pictures, but probably get detailed plans and techniques for making
and using the tools as well.