The Founding and Fathers of the Arts and Crafts Movement
1. The Founding and Fathers of the
Arts and Crafts Movement
Sandra Steiner
I will be researching and writing
about the Arts and Crafts
Movement, it’s founders and its
rise and fall in popularity.
2. The Founding and Fathers of the Arts
and Crafts Movement
• The arts and crafts movement is a
political, social, and aesthetic movement
founded by John Ruskin. It was popular during
the mid to late nineteenth century.
• The movement was a ideological artistic
response to the cheaply made manufactured
products of the Victorian era.
4. John Ruskin
• John Ruskin was one of the original founders
of the movement.
• He didn’t like the cheaply made products that
the Victorian era factories produced.
• Moved by Medieval Gothic art he appreciated
how this historical art form mimicked nature.
• He wanted to promote quality work, inspired
by nature that evoked emotion through
symbolism.
6. William Morris
• One of Ruskin’s protégé’s and one of my
personal favorite artists also embraced the
Arts and Crafts aesthetic.
• Originally attending college to join the
clergy, after reading Ruskin’s writings he
altered it pursuits to learn about architecture.
• He eventually created beautiful design in book
design, furniture, textiles, house wares, and
wall coverings.
11. Elbert Hubbard and the
Crossing to America
• The style was picked up by an American named
Elbert Hubbard.
• Disenchanted with the Industrial
Revolution, Hubbard was fertile ground for the
ideology of the Arts and Crafts Movement.
• After a trip to Europe and exposure to the
movement, Hubbard brought the Arts and Crafts
aesthetic home with him and began printing the
beautiful type that he saw in Europe at the
Roycroft press.
12. Roycroft Arts and Crafts Community
• After much success with print and manufacturing
in the arts and crafts style, Hubbard founded the
Roycroft Arts and Crafts Community.
• A man named Gustav Stickley visited the
community and abandoned the style of
manufacturing of the Victorian Era and embraced
the Arts and Crafts style furniture, eventually
cementing that as the signature style of furniture
for the American Arts and Crafts Movement.
15. The End of an Era
• May 1915 Edward Hubbard boarded the
RMS
Lusitania on his way to Germany to speak to
leadership there. He was trying to avoid a war.
• The Lusitania was attacked and sunk and now
rests at the bottom of the Irish Sea.
• Not willing to abandon her husband, Hubbard’s
wife stayed by his side.
• Their son ran the community for decades after
but it eventually closed.