I Met a Yellow Daffodil Kristen McCauley, Senior Manager of Education and Interpretation “When the bulbous plants break through the crust of winter, then Spring, evasive, whimsical and wild in her ways, cannot be gainsaid.” The Craftsman, March 1914. In early spring, the bright pink and yellow blooms of spring ephemerals spread like confetti over …
With 2023 on the horizon, we are looking ahead to a new day at Craftsman Farms. Next year, we will fully re-open, for the first time since March 2020, with a newly rebuilt Annex and restored Log House Kitchen (generously funded by the Twp of Parsippany-Troy Hills and the Preserve NJ Historic Preservation Fund). We ask …
Staff Pick: Yoshiko Yamamoto “100th Anniversary” Print Scarf By Vonda K. Givens, Executive Director When you have access to a shop in your workplace, especially one as nice as The Craftsman Shop, it can feel (at least for me) like a fringe benefit of the job. In fact, I have gifted friends and family with …
Start with the Plumbing By Vonda Givens, Executive Director An excellent plumber is infinitely more admirable than an incompetent philosopher. The society that scorns excellence in plumbing because plumbing is a humble activity and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because it is an exalted activity will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy. Neither its pipes …
Collections News: Howe to Succeed In Business by Jonathan Clancy, Director of Collections and Preservation Using the metalwork aesthetic that Gustav Stickley was developing and promoting in the first decade of the 20th century, Benedict Studios rapidly transformed itself from a maker of silverplated goods into a manufacturer of domestic metalware goods in the latest …
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Peach Season By Kristen McCauley, Senior Manager of Education and Interpretation Don’t you just love the summery sight of a bowl of brightly colored, fresh-picked peaches on the kitchen counter? It’s peach season here in NJ and we’re looking at the history of the New Jersey peach, and its connection to Gustav Stickley’s early twentieth …
Collections News: Additional Clews to Stickley’s Taste by Jonathan Clancy, Director of Collections and Preservation As it turns out, there are a few things I have trouble resisting. Near the top of the list is almost any pun about ceramics followed closely by the thrill of tracking down Staffordshire transferware that Stickley owned and displayed …
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Collections News: Some Clews to Stickley’s Taste by Jonathan Clancy, Director of Collections and Preservation Amongst the holes we’ve been eager to fill at the Museum since the opening of last fall’s exhibition Circa 1917: Rediscovering Craftsman Farms are the historical pieces that Stickley owned which greatly expand our understanding of the Log House interior …
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Surprise Craftsman by Vonda K. Givens, Executive Director November 20, 2021 was the day it had to happen. We had to find a house to purchase. Two previous offers had fallen through, and meanwhile the sale of our house was moving at lightning speed (its closing date was less than a month away). On November …
From the Director’s Chair: Fall For Stickley, Part 2 by Vonda K. Givens, Executive Director (Part 1: https://www.stickleymuseum.org/from-the-directors-chair/). Tropical Storm Isiais swept through Craftsman Farms in the early afternoon on August 4 and brought irreparable destruction to the Annex. Connected by a corridor to the Log House (the Stickley family home), the Annex (at left, …
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