June  is the former Keeper of the Shoe Collection for Northampton Central Museum, Northampton, England. In this presentation, she uses her  collection of colored slides as she traces the history of shoemaking from Ancient Rome through the development of the modern factory. She details the way hand cutting and stitching evolved into modern shoemaking machinery.

1) The late Capt. Peterkin discusses the shoes and boots worn by sailors and soldiers around the world during this volatile period for military footwear. He outlines an era that began with soldiers wearing shoes that were so uncomfortable it cost them their battles, and ended with the development of the Munson Last, the foundation for "the best shoe ever furnished American trooops."

 With transparencies, showing technical drawings of actual shoes from the 17th, 18th, & 19th centuries, Al discusses shoe archaeology. The drawings illustrate disassembled shoes and show how they were constructed and repaired. Following the transparencies, Al and Dean Nelson show and discuss Dean's fabulous collection of recovered footwear from the same centuries

1)  Using transparencies, the late Capt. Peterkin traces the evolution of the Army Bootee from the development of the Jefferson Boot through the Blucher shoes worn by soldiers and cavalry of the Civil War. He discusses manufacturers, inspection marks, and the actual construction of the Bootee.

2) With colored slides, Al shows shoemakers at their benches and discusses the clothing they wear, tools, postures, work locations, and how so little has changed over the Centuries. Many of the slides were taken by Al at the recent tour of England's Shoe Museums by the Cordwainers.

1)  Using transparencies, Al examines shoemaking manuals from Medieval times through the 18th century. A time when shoemakers made wonderful shoes without the help of sewing machines and modern adhesives. How did they do it? What kinds of tools and materials did they use? What were the names of their tools? Al answers these questions with pictures of actual pages from the books used by those shoemakers.

2) With beautiful color slides, June introduces us to this boot style. She shows us exactly what makes a boot a Hessian, who made them, who wrote about them, and who wore them (cavalry, Napoleon, and - would you believe - billy the Kid, among others).

3)  As a bonus, Rene enthusiastically shares with us his recent tour of obscure French Leather museums. All charming small town museums

1)Using her personal collection of beautiful slides, June discusses American shoes and shoemaking from Primitive Native American footwear through the latest styles.

2) Peter Oakley presents an intriguing insight into this era of flourishing American shoe production with the aid of factory production figures, numbers of employees, excerpts from account books, and the actual diary of a shoemaker.

3) While doing research for setting up a shoemaking shop for George Washington’s Mount Vernon Museum, Paul stumbled upon the actual shoemakers that made shoes for our first president. They made shoes for George Washington at Mount Vernon.

1) Working with his personal collection of slides and equipped with his background of years of work in Colonial Williamsburg's shoe shop, Al examines the philosophy of historical shoemaking in a museum environment.

2)  The Cordwainers visit the studio exhibit in the Plimoth Crafts Center for a personal impromptu tour of Rusty’s work at setting up a shoe shop to replicate 17th Century shoes.

3) Using detailed slides and diagrams, Tim presents his research on the reproduction of the uniform and leather equipment of the Grenadiers in the French and Indian War.

1) Al Saguto. Master Shoemaker, Colonial Williamsburg, presents a slide presentation highlighting and describing the various tools and devices gathered from Colonial Williamsburg, private and international collections. The slides will photo-illustrate his forthcoming book, The Art of the Cordwainer by M. DeGarsault.

2) Al Saguto examines each pair of historical shoes in the Cordwainers’ Shoe Collection in chronological order, from the late 1770s through to the early 20th century. He displays and describes the details and construction technique of each piece.

3)  Kenneth discusses the construction of a pair of reproduction top boots from patterning to polishing.

1) Gill,  Historian (ret.), Historic Trades Department, Colonial Williamsburg, 1961-1991, discusses his research on apprenticeship for 18th century trades. He covers apprenticeship indentures, education, and orphans, focusing on shoemakers and his book, Apprentices of Virginia, 1623-1800.

2)  Ross, Master Blacksmith, Colonial Williamsburg, shares his research on the background and detailed construction of reproduction 18th century pincers, nippers, and other related historic shoemaking tools as used in the Shoemaking shop at the museum.

3)  Bruce, historian/Cordwainer, New Hampshire. Using an old diary (1882) of his wife’s grandparents, who were part time shoemakers and part time farmers, Bruce discusses the history of shoemaking in New Hampshire. They “made shoes on the kitchen table“ and forwarded them to large manufacturers in his state.

4)  Saguto, Master Shoemaker, Colonial Williamsburg. Al displays and discusses Shoe remnants taken from the lower Manhattan, East River landfill. And donated to Colonial Williamsburg.

1) Following a spirited how-to orientation, Donna, separates the cordwainers into work groups for a hands-on workshop. Using paper, pencils and white cotton gloves, they examine identify and draw various mid to late 18th c. Shoes and fragments.

2) A discussion of the technical research and development Bruce has gone through to develop and market an affordable, hand made shoe.

3) A review and critique of a fascinating video of an Ecuadorian shoemaker who creates beautiful shoes with only a few simple (primitive) tools.

1)  A university paper delivered in the Czech Republic that examines children’s shoes from the Medieval period through the 20th century. Alzbeta includes an interesting formula for calculating the height of the children that wore those shoes.

2) Using inexpensive nylon line for a bristle and dacron polyester thread, D. W. presents an amazing hands-on demonstration using these unusual items to perform the same functions as an expensive hog’s bristle and linen thread.

1)Using slides, Al examines the treasure trove of 18th century shoes as recovered from burial or under water, from sewers, wells or sunken ships.

2) A "Show & Tell" presentation of Bruce's latest interest, book binding. He shows off his beautiful leather bound books and fields how-to questions from the cordwainers.

Marc’s interests lie in how mediaeval shoes were made. In this presentation, he discusses several methods that he believes those ancient shoemakers used during this dark time period.

1) Val presents the paper he is working on as his Journeyman project for Colonial Williamsburg. The detailed report includes the percentage of the shoes that were stitched, pegged, etc. down to counting the stitches per inch attained by those Colonial shoemakers.

2) Dan demonstrates the technique of lasting using the hoisting method by actually lasting a pump and a boot

1) Paul reproduced  a mid-19th Century Slave’s Shoes  Big Ben, a slave, was a huge man with extremely large feet. Paul tells Ben's story and examines one of Ben’s large shoes from a museum, then sets about creating a last for the shoe.

2) The STS Sock Method for making lasts. Using a fellow Cordwainer’s foot as a model, Glen demonstrates his techniques for creating a custom plaster last by taking a mold of the foot.

1) Bruce discusses shoes and other artifacts concealed in the walls of New England homes. He shows many of the old shoes using a power point slide show produced by Bruce and his wife, Penny.

2) Marc, the HCC Librarian, discusses the library collection and questions how to proceed with growing number of volumes.

1) Marc discovered, while digging through old manuscripts and illustrations of shoemakers at work, that there were no hammers mentioned or shown. In this presentation, he probes the reasons for this oddity with the use of power point slides.

2) Nasser  demonstrates how he tapes a last to extract its form. He also shows us how he makes hand sewing wax using pine pitch and cooking oil.

3) Dan digs into his trick bag and gives us some new ideas for patternmaking.

 1) Lisa, a custom bootmaker from Guthrie, Oklahoma, set up a course teaching leather art at Penland and, along with power point slides, discusses steps she took to create the course and problems she encountered and solved.

2)  Brett, a journeyman shoemaker at Colonial Williamsburgh, discusses  Samuel Lane who  kept a detailed journal of his day-to-day life as a New Hampshire shoemaker in the 18th Century. The New Hampshire Historical Society published a book of his writings. Brett discusses Samuel’s life with power point slides, as detailed in this book.

1) Edward, is a former Curator of Costumes and Textiles at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and founding director of the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto. In this presentation he analyzes the footwear worn by the subjects in the 17th century paintings in the Rijksmuseum's collection in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

2) Michael, a bootmaker in Sebastopol, California, received a commission from the Ford Theater and the National Park Service to recreate the boots that Lincoln was wearing when he was assasinated. In this presentation, he details the commission, from actually handling Lincoln's boots through his completion of the recreation.

3) Kathleen, Senior Critic, Apparel Design, RISD, has a  colleague who attended the preceding year's AGM and brought ideas that she had learned back to the school. Kathleen discusses the impact that has had on the school's curriculum and especially to Italian shoe design.

4)  Carina, master shoemaker in Sweden and Official Shoemaker to the Swedish Royal Family, discusses techniques that she uses to create orthotic shoes that are both attractive and orthotically correct.