The American Look
“The American Look: Fashions and Furnishings of the Arts and Crafts Era” features selections from the Sue Genet Costume Collection at Syracuse University and from Dalton’s American Decorative Arts. The show opens at the Warehouse Gallery in Syracuse, NY on October 15, 2011 and runs through November 11, 2011.
Elbert Hubbard: An American Original
Conformists die, heretics live forever.— Elbert Hubbard
In the documentary, “Elbert Hubbard: An American Original,” which first aired on PBS in 2009, director/writer Paul Lamont presents Hubbard, a major figure in the American Arts and Crafts Movement, as a man of contradictions. Hubbard was devoted to art, yet motivated by business; interested in the welfare of the common man but his Roycrofters created exquisite items only the wealthy could afford; family played a central role in his life, yet he was involved in a long-lived extramarital affair.
Hubbard’s early life is the stuff of Horatio Alger lore. He began selling soap at the age of 16 for the Larkin Company of Buffalo, New York. With a keen mind for business, and perseverance, young Hubbard quickly rose up the ranks in the company by introducing “from factory to family” direct catalog sales. In 1880, Hubbard married Bertha Crawford and began a family. Three years later the Hubbards moved to East Aurora, a village outside of Buffalo.
Elbert Hubbard, photographer unknown.
Source: http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1216826209p5/114059.jpg
Yet with all his success Hubbard felt unfulfilled and began to question the direction of this life. The works of Emerson, Thoreau and Whitman deeply moved and influenced him. Later on Hubbard would repackage many of these writers’ ideas as catchy mottoes in order to promote his ideals.
Happy Birthday, Design & Desire!
Design and Desire in the Twentieth Century is celebrating its first birthday. The blog began as part of a class assignment for an online course in Social Media at Syracuse University’s iSchool. I had so much fun researching and writing about my love for Twentieth Century design that I kept on posting after the course ended.
In the past year D&D has covered topics as diverse as architecture of the Arts and Crafts Movement to the origins of the Coca Cola Santa Claus. Some of the artists and designers featured were: architect Louis Kahn, sculptor Isamu Noguchi, photographer Julius Shulman and film production designer Ken Adam, among others. I hope I’ve been successful in adding a human dimension to the design greats discussed.
Design and Desire has given me the opportunity to connect with some very interesting folks who share my passion for great design. I strongly suggest you take some time to check out their excellent and informative blogs:
• Designslinger
• DesignCrave
• Aqua Velvet
• Frank Lloyd Wright Newsblog
• Josh Taylor Design
• Fin de Siecle
• Wood and Light
You may want to follow the additional blogs listed in the Blogroll on the right.
Sorry there’s no cake to celebrate with but here’s a photo of one that comes to us via Edward Lifson; it’s from the celebration held earlier this year, sponsored by the Mies van der Rohe Society, to commemorate the architect’s 125th birthday on March 28, 2011.
Source: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-J6wXxksjLWs/TZLhDS3X7BI/AAAAAAAANqw/4dnFut-MGNk/s400/Mies+birthday+cake.jpg
I sincerely want to thank all of you who’ve followed Design and Desire and enjoyed my blog. Please don’t hesitate to suggest ideas for future posts or just connect and say “Hello.” I’m so looking forward to another year of looking back at great design of the past century.
Arts and Crafts Shopmarks Directory
The Arts and Crafts Collector is a Web site run by Bruce Johnson, author, columnist, and Director of the National Arts and Crafts Conference at the Grove Park Inn in Asheville, NC. If you are a die-hard Arts and Crafts Movement aficionado or only possess a casual interest in the artifacts of the Movement, you owe it to yourself to visit his site.
Among the many resources available to collectors and researchers is the incredible shopmarks directory. The online resource includes images of shopmarks and information on nearly 500 furniture manufacturers, metal shops and potteries. Mr. Johnson is in the process of collecting, organizing and identifying numerous Arts & Crafts shopmarks. Johnson’s goal is a complete record of every Arts & Crafts company. If you have information on lesser-known Arts & Crafts firms he could use your help. Visit The Arts and Crafts Collector for details.
Dedham Pottery backstamp (1896-1943). Dedham, MA.
Source: http://www.brothers-handmade.com/images/Dedham-Pottery_1896-1943.jpg
Gustav Stickley and the American Arts and Crafts Movement
Organized by the Dallas Museum of Art and on exhibition now at the Newark Museum in Newark, New Jersey through January 2, 2011, “Gustav Stickley and the American Arts and Crafts Movement” is the first nationally touring exhibition to focus on the work of this leading figure of the American Arts and Crafts Movement.
Gustav Stickley, Sideboard (1902).
From Dan Bischoff’s Review in The Star-Ledger:
“Gustav Stickley built houses as if they were furniture and designed furniture as if it were architecture.” MORE
Houses on Robineau Road, Syracuse, NY
In the photograph entitled “The Clarissa Alsop Stillman House” the wood shingled building seen at the right of the photograph was once the studio of ceramicist Adelaide Alsop Robineau. Clarissa Alsop Stillman was the artist’s sister. The architect of the house and date the house was built are both unknown.
Ward Wellington Ward Houses in My Neighborhood
I live on the north side of Syracuse, New York where Ward designed and built several residences. Here are photographs of two: the John Gang House (1914) and the Carl Zeigler House (1915).
Ten Things You Should Know About Architect Ward Wellington Ward
Ward Wellington Ward (about 1915)
Source: http://syracusethenandnow.org/Architects/WWWard/WWWard.htm
Ward Wellington Ward (1875-1932) was an American architect who designed and built both residential and commercial buildings in upstate New York. Ward was born in Chicago, raised in Detroit, and studied architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. (MIT was the first institution in the US to offer a degree program in architecture.) He married Maude Moyer, a native of Syracuse, New York, in 1900. The couple lived in New York City for the next eight years and then settled in Syracuse. While Ward drew upon many influences, his residences are considered excellent examples of American Arts and Crafts architecture. Here are ten important facts about Ward Wellington Ward, his career and his body of work:
- Twenty-six of Ward’s houses are registered in the New York State or National Register of Historic Places.(1)
- Ward practiced architecture in New York City from 1900 to 1908; the only work attributed to him from this time was a residence in Magnolia, Massachusetts. The building was later destroyed in a fire. (2)
