Author: Janet Kardon, Ralph T. Coe

Publisher/Date: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1994

Format/Condition: NEW large softcover is in fine condition. 304 pages, measures 9×11 ½ inches, profusely illustrated.

Description: America’s grand and diverse craft tradition came close to extinction after industrialization and mass production were firmly established, but a variety of factors, especially the Great Depression, turned the tide just in time. Editor Kardon, director of the American Craft Museum, launched an ambitious survey of the history of twentieth-century craft that has generated the exhibit this fine book so beautifully documents. The plates are superb, and the essays about five distinct craft communities during the critical period 1920 through 1945 are outstanding.

The forces behind the revival and survival of African American, Appalachian, Hispanic, Native American, and Colonial Revival crafts are discussed by various experts from intriguingly fresh perspectives. In general, crafts were revived to provide people with income and an opportunity for self-improvement, but the machine age also gave rise to a new longing for handmade objects. It also ushered in the automobile age, which, in turn, generated tourism and a market for regional crafts. The other side of the coin, also well explored, is how that demand affected traditional designs within the context of each group.

The works discussed include Colonial Revival furniture, closely tied to FDR’s WPA projects and Eleanor Roosevelt’s Val-Kill workshop; African American ceramics and baskets; Appalachian quilts; Hispanic carved wood furniture and Puerto Rican lace; and Southwest Indian pottery