Circa 1917: Rediscovering Craftsman Farms

Fireplace Hood

Craftsman Workshops

1911 (ca.)

Copper and iron

Conservation of the Fireplace Hoods was made possible by a grant from the Morris County Historic Preservation Trust Fund and a generous gift in memory of Vykki Mende Gray.

Stickley used the fireplace hoods at Craftsman Farms to promote his craftsman persona in the public spaces, while reinforcing familial ideals in the private areas. In the living room, the most public of spaces, mottos hammered into the hoods—“By hammer and hand do all things stand” and “The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne”—presented Stickley as a professional arbiter of taste. In this room, Stickely is the consummate promoter of handicrafts, using old world techniques and traditions (not to mention spellings) that emphasize essential tenets of the movement he was helping to define.