I don't know what write ups you have, so excuse me if I tell you something you already know. Group the tools as much as possible according to the work they do -- like Aunt Phil suggested. This way, they tell a story, and pictures of them at work add to that story. A picture makes them alive.
You want nothing to distract the eye from the tool. While the picture blown up to 40 X 90 sounds good (and would look good by itself) it makes a distracting background. Think how you would display a piece of art. I would display the tools against a solid background rather than a grid. I've seen art displayed on a grid, and it loses something; it doesn't draw the eye to the art.
For people like us, it doesn't matter so much, since we're drawn to just about any tool. The focus and interest is already there. For the general public, though, you have to make them want to focus, you have to make everything easy for them to see. And easy for them to imagine these old tools and how they worked in life.
I can display a T handle augur, and tell you it was used to drill bolt holes in the beams that made a trestle, but that doesn't do the same job as displaying a photo of several workers boring holes in a trestle with the same augur.
A museum is not just a collection of artifacts. It's about education and scholarship. You're not just going to show people things; you're going to teach them.
