American Precision Museum

Robbins and Lawrence Armory and Machine Shop
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark
Location	S. Main St., Windsor, Vermont
Built	1846
Architect	Unknown
Architectural style	No Style Listed
NRHP reference No.	66000796
Added to NRHP	November 13, 1966

The American Precision Museum, founded in 1966 by Edwin Albert Battison, is located in Windsor, Vermont and is housed in the 1846 Robbins & Lawrence Armory, a National Historic Landmark. It has the largest collection of historically significant machine tools in the nation. In 1986 the museum was designated as an International Heritage Site and Collection by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

In 1851, Samuel Robbins and Richard Lawrence traveled to London to demonstrate their rifles at the Great Exhibition, held in London’s Crystal Palace. They demonstrated the rifles made at their Windsor factory and the concept of interchangeable parts. The British Army, so impressed with this revolutionary approach to gunmaking, placed an order for 25,000 rifles needed for the Crimean War and 141 metal-working machines. This order made Robbins and Lawrence the first large-scale exporter of machine tools, and the new method was referred to as the American System.

The museum is open daily from 10am until 5pm Memorial Day Weekend through October. Admission is free on Sundays.

Current exhibit

In commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, the museum opened two new exhibits to be on display in 2012 and 2013 from Memorial Day weekend through October. Full Duty: The Civil War Collection of Howard Coffin presents the first-ever exhibition from the private collection of Vermont’s foremost Civil War historian. The exhibit contains more than 100 artifacts and weaves a vivid story about Vermonters’ response to the crisis and their role in preserving the Union.

Arming the Union: Gunmakers in Windsor, Vermont uncovers the surprising influence of the machine tool company, Lamson, Goodnow & Yale, which operated out of the Robbins & Lawrence Armory. Together with other Northern gunmakers, they made 1.5 million rifles in the span of about three years. The majority of those weapons were made on machinery designed and produced by LG&Y.

External links

• American Precision Museum