There was a Childhood of Famous Americans biography of Elias Howe. If I recall correctly, one of his legs was shorter than the other. (You see how deeply my brain was imprinted in third grade.)
When I come across an item that is craft related, I always google for guilds, groups, blogs, selling sites, etc. related to the item.
If I were you, I would find and interview collectors and collecting guilds and sites of older sewing machines...lots and lots of resources and information. A collector can tell you far more than Google ever can, believe me! Also, many sewers still like to use older machines, even very old ones...it's a Hot Thing to do...and they can tell you lots as well you're not going to fine elsewhere.
My little Royal Blue portable typewriter was lost in Internet space, until I started googling for typewriter collectors' groups, when I quickly located not only photos of it but approximate collector values for my $3 purchase and a nice history of it. I also got to share enthusiasm with a genuine collector online..really fun to do as well.
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