Garfield Farm Museum offers Blacksmithing 101 & 201 this weekend

The nostalgic smell of coal smoke will fill the air on Saturday, Oct. 12, when Garfield Farm Museum staff member Joseph Coleman will offer a "Blacksmithing 101" lecture/demonstration.

Learn about the history of blacksmithing at 10 a.m. There will be a discussion of how we arrived at the Iron Age and how blacksmithing impacted the Industrial Revolution.

To conclude, Coleman also will demonstrate 19th-century blacksmithing skills.

"Blacksmithing 202" at 2 p.m. will include a lecture, demonstration and hands-on experience for the guests; no prior experience is needed.

Iron has been used by numerous civilizations over the course of thousands of years. It played a pivotal role during the industrial revolution. Iron also had many practical applications on prairie farmsteads like Garfield Farm.

Coleman has been in the history museum field since 2005. He has demonstrated 19th-century blacksmithing in Naperville for five years and during his hobby of Civil War reenacting. He took an interest in blacksmithing during Garfield Farm's "1840's Days" on how it could be applied to farm life.

The cost of "Blacksmithing 101" is $8, and "Blacksmithing 202" is $40. It includes materials included and refreshments are included.

For reservations, contact the museum at (630) 584-8485 or info@garfieldfarm.org.

Garfield Farm Museum is located on Garfield Road, off Route 38, five miles west of Geneva.

The 374-acre site is a historically intact former 1840s farm and teamster inn being restored as an 1840s working farm museum by volunteers and donors from around the country. The museum depends exclusively on donations to preserve the incredible historic, agricultural, and natural resources on the farm.

Visit www.garfieldfarm.org or www.facebook.com/GarfieldFarmMuseum/.