I really enjoyed this demo! I'm not sure if I made it as far as one possibly could because I got hung-up looking for a light source, but what I did manage to play was fantastic!
The art style is nostalgic, but well done and clearly conveys the things the game needs you to be able to see/understand. I love the music and sound design for this as well, and I really appreciated that you didn't have the music/sounds set to max volume on load in. So many games do that, and blow my eardrums out on launch.
Use of the environment to lead people around is very clever, most notably with the crow's feather, and I think that's a great bit of subtle guidance and storytelling. Definitely keep going with those subtle little things to help catch the player's eye, it really matters.
Loved the interconnectivity of exploring, clicking on everything, and thus solving puzzles in a seemingly non-linear order. It's just fun to be able to explore and get excited about what you're finding and solving.
Story thus far seems cohesive, and isn't straying off in too many odd tendrils that are going to be difficult to wrap up. Props for that. Sometimes I think people who are designing games forget how crucial it is to just have a to-the-point story--save the more in-depth ones that have multiple things to consider for either the really long games (10hrs+ to complete), or books.
Now, for a few things I think could use some work.
First and foremost, please explain the controls, or have the basic ones on-screen somewhere (even if only when it's relevant). It was pure luck that I realized one mouse button zoomed in, and the other zoomed out. It was also never explained that you could combine items together, I just sort of thought to try because I've played similar games before (like Fran Bow, which I saw on Steam was a similar game after-the-fact). If you get someone who plays your game as their first game in this genre, they may not think to try and combine those items and that could be the difference between them enjoying the game, and them leaving a negative review and/or refunding it.
I mentioned above that I'm not sure if I got through the whole demo or not, but I got completely stuck. Felt like I explored everywhere, and did everything thing, and couldn't progress. If I in fact had not completed the demo, then I'd recommend a "hint" feature that very gently guides you to where you might find the next thing you need to do. Something where it's like "Are you sure you checked all the boxes?" or "Some objects can be turned over for more clues". You don't need to spell it out, but having a hint to help guide the player when they're stuck at a certain point is always nice, in my opinion. You could even make it an option too, perhaps, where you can toggle hints being on or not.
Now for some nit-picky things, because this is who I am as a person but I do feel will help you have a stronger game overall.
In the one article, "Ashwood Protests" dated September 18, I think you need to double-check the grammar. It says "Ashwood mining" at one point that I think you meant to say "Ashwood Mine".
Regarding the butter knife, I think you have a typo. You state that it's from 1859 on the card, but I think you meant to say 1959. Firstly, stainless steel wasn't invented until 1913, so if it's not a typo, then that knife couldn't have existed. Secondly, I'd remove the entire sentence about it shining best from "grass fed butter", because the American Grass Fed Movement didn't even really happen until 2003. There were whispers of such things shortly after WWII with the introduction of factory farming that happened, but it did not become a mainstream focus until the year 2000, and was really pushed come 2003. I understand you wanted to tie the butter knife into butter somehow for its own marketing purposes, but this definitely felt like a stretch and you were trying too hard. I'd go for a different angle like "A knife so well made you'll never tear your bread again when buttering it" or something like that. Totally an overreach of a company to say that, but companies in the 50s liked cheesy things that didn't necessarily make sense but would improve the average housewife's day.
Overall though this is a solid game, and I've added it to my wishlist for its future release. I really want to complete the story and learn more. And see if that computer does contain the saucy images the Uncle may have been looking at >_> LOL jk jk
My VOD is here, your game is timestamped in the bookmarks: