Frances Louisa Goodrich

Frances Louisa Goodrich
Born(1856-09-15)September 15, 1856
Binghamton, New York
DiedFebruary 20, 1944(1944-02-20) (aged 87)
Asheville, North Carolina
Alma materYale School of Fine Arts
Known forWeaving, Fiber Arts

Frances Louisa Goodrich (September 15, 1856 – February 20, 1944) was an American weaver, writer, and archivist. She is best known for founding the Allanstand Cottage Industries in 1887.[1]

Biography

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Goodrich was born on September 15, 1856, in Binghamton, New York.[2] Her father was a Presbyterian minister and a proponent of the Social Gospel movement.[1] She attended Yale School of Fine Arts and in 1890 she located to North Carolina where she was a volunteer teacher at College Hill.[3] In 1895 she was given a handmade, overshot-woven Double Bow Knot coverlette.[4] She admired the craftsmanship and she then turned her attention to the craft.

Woven coverlet double bow knot pattern

In 1897 Goodrich established Allanstand Cottage Industries with the mission of providing a way for rural women to earn money and to keep the craft of Appalachian weaving alive.[5] Weaving was particularly suitable as a cash craft for rural women as it could be completed as time allowed, with the weaver simply marking their stopping point with a pin.[1]

In 1900 Goodrich held the first exhibition of Allanstand crafts, and in 1908 she opened a store in the populated city of Asheville, North Carolina.[1] In 1930 Goodrich helped organize the Southern Highland Handicraft Guild (now the Southern Highland Craft Guild) .[2][6]

Goodrich collected the traditional patterns for the looms. She also wrote a book entitled Mountain Homespun: The Crafts and People of the Southern Appalachians. It was published in 1931 by Yale University Press.[7]

Goodrich donated her textile collection to the Southern Highland Craft Guild.[8][9]

She died on February 20, 1944, in Asheville, North Carolina.[2]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d Koplos, Janet; Metcalf, Bruce (2010). Makers: a history of American studio craft. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina press. pp. 135–136. ISBN 9780807834138.
  2. ^ a b c "Goodrich, Frances Louisa". NCpedia. Retrieved 9 January 2024.
  3. ^ "Frances Louisa Goodrich". Swannanoa Valley Museum & History Center. 20 May 2020. Retrieved 9 January 2024.
  4. ^ "Double Bow Knot Coverlet". Historic Weaving. 3 April 2013. Retrieved 9 January 2024.
  5. ^ "Craft Revival: Shaping Western North Carolina Past and Present". Western Carolina University. Retrieved 9 January 2024.
  6. ^ "Southern Highland Craft Guild". Southern Highland Craft Guild. 6 April 2024. Retrieved 9 January 2024.
  7. ^ Goodrich, Frances Louisa (1931). "Mountain homespun". New Haven, Yale University Press; London, H. Milford, Oxford University Press, 1931. Retrieved 9 January 2024.
  8. ^ "Danielle Burke on Frances Louisa Goodrich". Asheville Made. Retrieved 9 January 2024.
  9. ^ "Frances Louisa Goodrich". Buncombe County Special Collections. 30 March 2015. Retrieved 10 January 2024.
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