The United Crafts: A Guild of Cabinet Makers, Metal, and Leather Workers
Item
Title
The United Crafts: A Guild of Cabinet Makers, Metal, and Leather Workers
Creator
The United Crafts
Date
1901
Dimensions
4 3/4 x 7 3/4 inches
Object No.
2024.1.10
Credit line
Gift of Michael Lehr and Robin Kelsey
Description
This pamphlet does not appear in the Worldcat database of library holdings, nor was it featured in the Stickley Museum's 2008 exhibit “Mr. Stickley’s Catalogs.” It is indeed a rarity. From the title, it is clear that it must have been produced prior to 1904, when the company name “Craftsman Workshops” was in use. In addition, pieces of the text are identical to the forward in the first issue of the Craftsman, suggesting it was made around the same time, but not necessarily derived from those passages.
Although The Craftsman debuted in October 1901, it is clear from the forward that this had been in the works for some time, since Stickley informed readers not only of the contents of the coming month’s issue, but made reference to “a subsequent issue” that featured the “Rise of the Guild System in Europe,” thereby demonstrating that the first three months had been fully planned—and apparently mostly written too—by October of that year. From this, it would seem that the text for the first issue was underway by mid-summer.
Significantly, there are two features of the pamphlet that argue for an early date. The first is that throughout the text there is no mention of The Craftsman which appeared in virtually every publication Stickley produced from the second half of 1901 onward. Secondly, the back cover, states: “An examination of the exhibit of the United Crafts will convince the critic that the company fulfils [sic] its avowed purpose of producing no article which it shall degrade a man either to make or sell.” The exhibit in question is likely the Pan-American Exposition which was held in Buffalo, NY from May 1st to November 2, 1901. This would explain the lack of mention of The Craftsman as well as the emphasis in the text on an “American School of Art,” a feature noticeably absent in the first issue’s forward.
It is clear, in any event, that the pamphlet was published in 1901, thanks to a copy of the pamphlet that survives in the Lucy Maynard Salmon papers at Vassar. Salmon, a professor at Vassar, moved into a home on 263 Mill Street in Poughkeepsie during 1901 and wrote on her copy, “makers of the dining room furniture.”
Although The Craftsman debuted in October 1901, it is clear from the forward that this had been in the works for some time, since Stickley informed readers not only of the contents of the coming month’s issue, but made reference to “a subsequent issue” that featured the “Rise of the Guild System in Europe,” thereby demonstrating that the first three months had been fully planned—and apparently mostly written too—by October of that year. From this, it would seem that the text for the first issue was underway by mid-summer.
Significantly, there are two features of the pamphlet that argue for an early date. The first is that throughout the text there is no mention of The Craftsman which appeared in virtually every publication Stickley produced from the second half of 1901 onward. Secondly, the back cover, states: “An examination of the exhibit of the United Crafts will convince the critic that the company fulfils [sic] its avowed purpose of producing no article which it shall degrade a man either to make or sell.” The exhibit in question is likely the Pan-American Exposition which was held in Buffalo, NY from May 1st to November 2, 1901. This would explain the lack of mention of The Craftsman as well as the emphasis in the text on an “American School of Art,” a feature noticeably absent in the first issue’s forward.
It is clear, in any event, that the pamphlet was published in 1901, thanks to a copy of the pamphlet that survives in the Lucy Maynard Salmon papers at Vassar. Salmon, a professor at Vassar, moved into a home on 263 Mill Street in Poughkeepsie during 1901 and wrote on her copy, “makers of the dining room furniture.”