October 13, 2006

Lock Museum opens for tours next week only

Midtown's Mossman Lock Museum, rarely open to the public, next week will open its doors for a series of curator-led tours as part of its fall open house.

The collection, which is eye candy even for people who don't have a fetish for polished gears, antique fonts and all things mechanical, even includes a 4,000 year-old, wooden Egyptian lock. The bulk of the collection is celebrated in the new coffee table tome, "American Genius: Nineteenth-Century Bank Locks and Time Locks," by museum curator John Erroll and his son David Erroll. The frame-worthy photographs are by Anne Day.

At last night's launch party for the book, the senior Erroll gave a mini-tour of the collection, discussing how the locks operate, and throwing in bits about lock picking, the nasty competition among inventors and a footnote about a lock maker who also tried to sell the dirigible "Aereon" to President Lincoln for use in the Civil War.

The lock museum is housed at the General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen, located at 20 W. 44th St., map.

Next week's tours, which cost $10 unless you're attending another General Socety event that same day, are scheduled for October 16, 17, 19 and 20 at 2 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. plus 2 p.m. on October 18. Reserve spots by calling (212) 921-1767 or e-mail library@generalsociety.org.

October 13, 2006 09:34 AM in Cheap Stuff, History, Midtown, Museums, Sightsology, Tours

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