Timeline of the Arts and Crafts Movement in Deerfield

1889

Progressive reformers Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr establish Hull House for the benefit of the immigrant population of Chicago. Ellen has family ties in Deerfield, Massachusetts.

Visitation to Memorial Hall Museum: not reported

1890

Ernest Fenollosa, America's authority on Japanese art, lectures on Asian art in Deerfield. Madeline Wynne's mother recalls that he "brought the very spirit of Japanese Art to us."

C. Alice Baker buys the historic Frary House as a summer home.

2268 visitors

1891

Visitation to Memorial Hall Museum: not reported

1892

Visitors to Memorial Hall Museum are increasing and free admission was replaced by a 10 cent fee. Visits included 16 school groups "in a body" with 16-68 pupils per class, and "large delegations from the colleges."

2515 visitors

1893

46 nations participate in the World's Columbian Exposition held in Chicago, Illinois. The fair celebrates the 400th anniversary of Columbus' discovery of the New World.

2100 visitors

1894

2530 visitors

1895

Madeline Yale Wynne's short ghost story, "The Little Room" is published in Harper's New Monthly Magazine.

2100 visitors

1896

Margaret Whiting and Ellen Miller create patterns from the colonial embroidery in Memorial Hall Museum. This project leads them to found the Deerfield Society of Blue and White Needlework.

Visitation not reported

1897

The "Village Room" is dedicated.

In May, Ellen Miller and Margaret Whiting host an informal exhibit of Blue and White needlework in the Miller home later to become the Society's showrooms.

Visitation not reported

1898

Mary Allen's article "Blue and White Needlework of Deerfield," is published in The House Beautiful.

Madeline Yale Wynne lectures on silver work at Chicago's Hull House.

Five embroideries from Deerfield are sent to the first exhibit of the Chicago Arts and Crafts Society.

Visitation not reported

1899

The first exhibit and sale of Deerfield Society of Arts and Crafts work is held in the "Village Room".

The Deerfield Basket Makers, one of two Deerfield Arts and Crafts groups devoted to basketry, is founded after a braiding bee at the Frary House.

Arthur Wesley Dow's revolutionary art education textbook Composition is published. Dow's design ideas will greatly influence American Arts and Crafts artisans.

Visitation not reported

1900

Madeline Yale Wynne becomes a member of PVMA.

2198 visitors

1901

Theodore Roosevelt becomes the 26th president this year.

The Deerfield Society of Arts and Crafts is founded by Madeline Yale Wynne on August 17th.

2365 visitors

1902

A special exhibition of the Arts and Crafts book bindings of Ellen Gates Starr is held in Deerfield. Starr was cofounder of Chicago's famous Hull House, and is related to Frances & Mary Allen.

3432 visitors

1903

Jane Pratt's article "From Merton Abbey to Old Deerfield", appears in the November 1903 edition of the Arts and Crafts journal The Craftsman.

Orville Wright takes the first powered airplane flight over a beach in North Carolina.

5396 visitors

1904

Female ownership of real estate along The Street steadily increased in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. By 1904, nearly forty percent of the homes were owned by women.

6334 visitors

1905

Pauline Bouve publishes "The Deerfield Renaissance" in the New England Magazine.

5689 visitors

1906

The Deerfield Society of Arts and Crafts holds a special exhibition of foreign textiles that includes items from Japan and Asia, the Middle East and Eastern Europe.

The Blue and White Society withdraws from the Deerfield Society of Arts and Crafts which is renamed the Society of Deerfield Industries.

Painter Augustus Vincent Tack presents a lecture on Japanese prints and textiles during a meeting of the Society of Deerfield Industries.

6916 visitors

1907

The book-length tourist guide, A Historic and Present Day Guide to Old Deerfield, by photographer and Frary House resident Emma Coleman is first published

6576 visitors

1908

The Ford Motor Company begins manufacturing the Model T.

The first annual National League of Handicraft Society Convention is held in Deerfield, Massachusetts. Both Madeline Yale Wynne and Arthur Wesley Dow are its vice presidents.

7014 visitors

1909

A lecture on "Woman Suffrage" is presented in the Village Room.

Professionally-trained potter Chauncey Thomas, former student of Arthur Wesley Dow, opens the Deerfield Pottery.

7100 visitors

1910

The town's first historical pageant takes place on the grounds of the Allen homestead during three days in July.

The 1704 raid on Deerfield was first captured on film in the Edison Company's movie, "Ononko's Vow" which was filmed in Deerfield in the spring.

5982 visitors

1911

During the months of December 1911 and January 1912, the Allen sisters host the National League of Handicraft Societies traveling exhibit in their home.

Chauncey Thomas closes his pottery shop and the following year moves to California.

5908 visitors

1912

5988 visitors

1913

The six-year-old National League of Handicraft Societies dissolves.

The town's second historical pageant takes place this summer. It attracts more than 5,000 tourists to Deerfield.

6729 visitors

1914

World War I begins.

6582 visitors

1915

Margaret Whiting presents "Why I am a Suffragette" to the local Woman's Alliance.

Gertrude Porter Ashley and Mildred Porter Ashley publish Raffia Basketry As a Fine Art. It is illustrated with baskets that they made with Natalie May Ashley.

7548 visitors

1916

During four days in August, Deerfield's final historical pageant takes place on the grounds of the Allen homestead.

7712 visitors

1917

The United States enters World War I. Women on the Deerfield home front support the war effort in various ways.

For the first time since its annual exhibitions were instituted, there is no Arts and Crafts group exhibition in Deerfield this summer.

6241 visitors

1918

In January, Madeline Yale Wynne passes away. For the second year in a row, the annual group exhibition of Deerfield Arts and Crafts work is cancelled.

World War I ends on the 11th day of November.

4753 visitors

1919

The Deerfield Arts and Crafts artisans celebrate their twentieth anniversary with a town-wide group exhibition. This will be the last exhibition organized by the Society of Deerfield Industries for ten years.

6931 visitors

1920

At the end of August the 19th amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified. Deerfield's female artisans and women across the nation now possess the right to vote.

7712 visitors

1921

8440 visitors

1922

Margaret Whiting becomes president of the Deerfield branch of the League of Women Voters.

7897 visitors

1923

The 250th anniversary of the incorporation of Deerfield is celebrated in August.

8590 visitors

1924

The trolley tracks are removed from The Street in Deerfield.

8586 visitors

1925

This year saw extensive remodeling of the old Deerfield Town Hall. Changes included the addition of a pedimented portico supported by ionic columns done in a revival of a Greek Revival style, which had been popular in the second quarter of the nineteenth century.

8963 visitors

1926

The Deerfield Society of Blue and White Needlework officially "close their books."

In 1926, old Deerfield held an open house for benefit of the Laurel Hill Cemetary Association. Costumed owners of fifteen of Deerfield's historic homes greeted over 4000 visitors in one day. The event raised $4,200.

9661 visitors

1927

In her diary, Eleanor Arms, who wove rag rugs and palm leaf baskets, reports her 1927 income from weaving to be $1,133.40. She also mentions receiving a $200 commission from Henry Ford for rugs for the Wayside Inn in South Sudbury, Massachusetts.

9139 visitors

1928

7620 visitors