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Shoemaking tools from Silas Clinton "Dinky" Harris, shoe repair
Images (click to enlarge)
  • Harris family, about 1920,
    Harris family about 1920, Jonas, Martha, Homer, Henry, and Dinky.
  • Silas Clinton Harris, 1912-1985, operated a shoemaker and shoe repair shop in Floyd.
    Dinky Harris portrait courtesy of Connie Mitchell.
Media
Cultural Objects, Tools

Shoe Repair Tools

People
Associated Person: Silas Clinton "Dinky" Harris
Date
1950-1985
Places
Floyd County
Material/Medium

Various hand tools of wood and metal

Specifications

Multiple items for various shoemaking, shoe repair, and harness work tasks

Description

Collection includes a variety of shoe repair, harness, and shoe-making tools used by Silas Clinton “Dinky” Harris at his business in the Town of Floyd.

Bio Sketch

Silas Clinton “Dinky” Harris, 1912-1985, operated a popular shoe repair shop at various locations in Radford and Floyd, and finally next to Harris Cleaners in downtown Floyd, Virginia. He was a self-taught, skilled shoemaker and an accomplished furniture maker. We are not sure of how he acquired his nickname. And, although he was injured in a farm machinery accident as a youth and had a wooden leg, there was also a line of circa 1930s, die-cast toys of miniature farm machinery called “Dinky Toys,” with one so-named, “Dinky Massey-Harris.”