Aileen Osborn Webb
- William Church Osborn.[1] (father)
- Alice Clinton Hoadley Dodge.[1] (mother)
Aileen Osborn Webb (1892–1979) was an American patron of crafts.[3][4][5] She was a founder of the organization now known as the American Craft Council, which gives an annual award named for her.[6] She was considered a "principal supporter" of the American Craft movement during the Great Depression.[1] She founded the School for American Craftsmen (SAC), which is now part of Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT).[2]
Early life
Aileen Osborn was born on June 25, 1892 in Garrison, New York to William Church Osborn, an art collector who later donated his art pieces to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and active member of the Democratic Party, and Alice Clinton Hoadley Dodge, a philanthropist, social reformer and daughter of William E. Dodge Jr.[1][3][4][5] Her brother was Frederick Osborn. She was educated at Miss Chapin's School in New York City[7] and then in Paris, where she learned to speak French.[3]
At the age of 20, Aileen married Vanderbilt Webb, son of Eliza Osgood Vanderbilt Webb, grandson of William Henry Vanderbilt and great-grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt.[3][4][8] The couple got married on September 10, 1912, in Garrison.[9] They had three boys and one girl: Derrick, William, Richard, and Barbara.[10]
Family influence
Webb had deep knowledge of art and education. The men in Aileen Osborn Webb's family had a lot of influence on her, as they set the bar extremely high with humanitarian and civil contribution; their lives were "full of good works".[citation needed]
Her father, William Church Osborn, was the director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.[11] Her paternal great-grandfather, Jonathan Sturges, her maternal great-grandfather William Earl Dodge Sr.[12] and her paternal grandfather, William Henry Osborn, were all superior art patrons of the Hudson River School and were associated with Frederic Edwin Church— William Osborn was a close fellow of the artist.[10] Moreover, her father-in-law, commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt, had founded Vanderbilt University.[11] The money that the Osborn men had made allowed the Osborn women to create a philanthropic base, which future women would then form.
Not only men, but also the women in Aileen Osborn's childhood gave her a motivational model of the Gilded Age philanthropy and consistently state that her work was the biggest supporter to the country's crafts. Alice Dodge's philanthropic accomplishments were a big part of Aileen's memories as a girl. Aileen's mother was also a well-known supporter of the Bellevue School of Nursing. Her mother-in-law, Mrs. William H. Osborn, who worked as the School's first president in 1873, inspired Alice. Alice Osborn later took her mother-in-law's place as president of the School. Another woman who inspired Aileen was her maternal aunt, Mary Melissa Hoadley ("Aunt May"), the unmarried heir to the copper fortune who supported Aileen Osborn financially to develop her crafts domain.[10]
Philanthropy
Born into an American family of philanthropists who were known as victorious manufactures, financiers and scientists, Aileen Osborn Webb was the best craft supporter of the 20th century. She was raised in a Garrison, New York and Manhattan where she was surrounded by people who supported giving back to the communities that helped make them so successful.[10]
In the 1920s, Aileen was Vice Chairman of the Democratic Party. She also participated with the Junior League, which was co-founded by her sister-in-law Frederica Vanderbilt Webb, along with Mary Harriman and Dorothy Whitney in 1907.[3][5]
During the Great Depression, she encouraged the poor to sell handmade goods to improve their financial situations.[4] She founded America House in New York in 1940.[3] In 1941, she helped start Craft Horizons magazine.[3] In 1943, she founded the American Craft Council.[3][4][5]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/23/Craftsman%27s_World_Aileen_Webb_speaker-32.jpg/400px-Craftsman%27s_World_Aileen_Webb_speaker-32.jpg)
In 1944, she founded the School of the American Craftsman (SAC), now part of the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York.[4][2] In 1956, she founded the Museum of Contemporary Crafts, now known as the Museum of Arts and Design, the first museum to exhibit craft art by living artists.[4] In 1964, she created the World Crafts Council to support indigenous craftspeople around the world.[4]
America House
During the Great Depression, she began a crafts group named Putnam County Products in her hometown of Peekskill, New York, which was created to assist local craftsmen sell their products. When Aileen noticed that there was a need for an organization that would help the craft members find broader markets to help them sell the products, she created the Handcraft Cooperative League of America in 1940. The group would carry the finest quality of crafts from within the country, and they chose New York as its location.[13] She and her associates felt that the more crafts they sold, the more lives they would advance, not only on a financial rank for the artists, but a greater rank of meaning for the buyers as well."[14] In the late 1930s, Webb became interested in craft making herself. She was a potter, enamelist, watercolorist, and wood carver.[1]
The America House was an outlet for crafts.[11] "The name "America House" was suggested by league member Laurits Christian Eichner, a pewter craftsman".[13] Selling was not always the marketing strategy at the America House. In the early 1940s, Webb and her associates held many craft exhibitions. "America House gallery could tour Craftsmanship of New England." Their exhibitions offered the best of local contemporary crafts such as, furniture, tapestry, and stained glass. The Hands of Servicemen, on exhibit later that year, reflected current affairs and Webb's own desire to see servicemen equipped with useful skills.[citation needed]
Throughout these exhibitions, Webb was creating shows that defined her belief in the potential of craft to elevate society's tastes. These exhibitions also offered useful skills to people who were interested in crafts as a career and served as a political tool between countries. Exhibition space need became an official goal of the American Craftsmen's Council after its primary success exhibiting crafts at America House. Contemporary Furniture from the School for American Craftsmen began at the America House gallery in 1951. Aileen Webb indicated how education and marketing that were linked intimately were to the success of the contemporary craftsmen, and she used the chance to display the students' work to benefit public exposure for the developing artists.[10] Craft Horizons was an informal newsletter published by Aileen Webb in 1941. Although it started out as a simple newsletter published after Mrs. Webb recognized the significance of communicating America House's activities, it eventually became a leader in the documentation of the craft world. By 1979, Craft Horizons averaged an impressive 40,000 copies in its monthly circulations. Known today as American Craft, Craft Horizons has become the country's main craft publication.[14]
Other houses
In the 1950s, she bought a penthouse residence that combined two apartments designed by David Campbell on East 72nd Street in Manhattan.[3] Her living-room included a painting by Claude Monet and her front entrance weavings by Lenore Tawney.[3] She also owned a painting by Paul Gauguin.[3] Her penthouse included a studio, where she handcrafted, wood carved, painted and wrote poetry.[3]
She spent her weekends in her hometown house in Garrison, which included a table by Wendell Castle. She summered in her husband's family home, Shelburne Farms in Shelburne, Vermont, where she had a "glass house" built on Lake Champlain.[3] This house was furnished with modern furniture, and a large mural by Glen Michaels.[10]
Death
Webb died on August 15, 1979, at the age of 87, in her home in Garrison, New York.[2]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g Werne, Jo (May 24, 1987). "American Crafts". The Miami Herald (Miami, Florida). p. 1H, 8H – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b c d e "Aileen Osborn Webb, educator, 87". Newspapers.com. Democrat and Chronicle. August 25, 1979. p. 11. Archived from the original on May 3, 2021. Retrieved May 3, 2021.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Joyce Lovelace, Who Was Aileen Osborn Webb?, July 25, 2011, American Craft Council
- ^ a b c d e f g h Barbara Lovenheim, Crafting Modernism Archived December 25, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, NYCityWoman.com
- ^ a b c d Sandra Alfoldy, Crafting Identity: The Development of Professional Fine Craft in Canada, McGill-Queen's Press, 2005, pp.55-67 [1]
- ^ American Craft Council. (September 16, 2009). Aileen Osborn Webb Awards 2008. http://craftcouncil.org/magazine/article/aileen-osborn-webb-awards-2008
- ^ "This Month in American Craft Council History: June 2012". American Craft Council. Archived from the original on June 13, 2012.
- ^ "Who's Who". Shelburne Farms (Shelburne, Vermont). December 19, 2011. Archived from the original on May 8, 2013. Retrieved May 3, 2021.
- ^ "Aileen Osborn Marries, Granddaughter of W.E. Dodge Becomes Bride of Vanderbilt Webb". St. Louis Globe-Democrat (St. Louis, Missouri). September 12, 1912. Retrieved May 3, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b c d e f Hintze, Stephen Brandon. "Cultivating the Crafts: Aileen Osborn Webb and the Instituting of American Craft, 1934-1964." MA thesis Corcoran College of Art and Design, 2008. Web. October 20, 2013.
- ^ a b c Gordon, Dane R. Rochester Institute of Technology: Industrial Development and Educational Innovation in an American City. New York: E. Mellen, 1982. Print.
- ^ "Vanderbilt Webb weds Miss Osborn" (PDF). New York Times. September 12, 1912. Retrieved March 18, 2015.
- ^ a b Neyman, Bella. "The Magazine Antiques." The (America) House That Mrs. Webb Built. October 31, 2013. <http://www.themagazineantiques.com/articles/america-house/ Archived December 12, 2013, at the Wayback Machine>.
- ^ a b Zaiden, Emily. "Craft In America / The American Craft Council and Aileen Osborn Webb." Craft In America / The American Craft Council and Aileen Osborn Webb. N.p., n.d. Web. October 19, 2013. <http://www.craftinamerica.org/artists_metal/story_585.php Archived December 7, 2013, at the Wayback Machine>
- v
- t
- e
- Adda Husted Andersen
- Dorothy Meredith
- Ed Rossbach
- Frans Wildenhain
- Harvey Littleton
- Lenore Tawney
- Lili Blumenau
- Peter Voulkos
- Sam Maloof
- Toshiko Takaezu
- Trude Guermonprez
- Florence Eastmead
- Francis Sumner Merritt
- Margaret Patch
- Mary Lyon
- Maurine Roberts
- Rudolph Schaeffer
- Arline Fisch
- George Nakashima
- Gerry Williams
- Hans Christensen
- Katherine Westphal
- Joan Mondale
- Margery Anneberg
- Rose Slivka
- William Brown
- Bernard Kester
- Joel Myers
- Margret Craver
- Mary Nyburg
- Tage Frid
- Warren MacKenzie
- Eudorah Moore
- Robert W. Gray
- John Mason
- Kay Sekimachi
- Marianne Strengell
- Maurice Heaton
- Richard Thomas
- Ted Randall
- Harold Brennan
- Sydney Butchkes
- Dale Chihuly
- Kenneth Ferguson
- Wendell Castle
- Beatrice Wood
- Claire Zeisler
- Dominic Di Mare
- Edward Moulthrop
- Heikki Seppä
- June Schwarcz
- Richard DeVore
- Robert Sperry
- Val Cushing
- Carlyle Smith
- James Wallace
- Jonathan Fairbanks
- LaMar Harrington
- Albert Green
- Arthur Carpenter
- C. Carl Jennings
- Frances Senska
- Fritz Dreisbach
- Glen Kaufman
- Harrison McIntosh
- Mark Peiser
- Mary Scheier
- James McKinnell
- Nan Bangs McKinnell
- Paul Soldner
- Phillip Fike
- Polly Lada-Mocarski
- Ted Hallman
- Walter G. Nottingham
- William Daley
- C. Malcolm Watkins
- James Melchert
- Lloyd Herman
- Marion Stroud Swingle
- Paul J. Smith
- Rudy Turk
- Edris Eckhardt
- Frances Higgins
- Francis Whitaker
- Gertrud Natzler
- Lillian Elliott
- Margaret Tafoya
- Michael Higgins
- Otto Heino
- Otto Natzler
- Viktor Schreckengost
- Vivika Heino
- Blanche Reeves
- R. Leigh Glover
- Cynthia Schira
- David Shaner
- Edgar Anderson
- Joyce Anderson
- James 'Mel' Someroski
- Karl Martz
- Kurt Matzdorf
- Marvin Lipofsky
- Robert Arneson
- Stanley Lechtzin
- Walker Weed
- Helen Drutt English
- Mildred Constantine
- Ruth DeYoung Kohler
- Betty Woodman
- Gerhardt Knodel
- Jere Osgood
- John Marshall
- Kenneth Price
- Margarete Seeler
- Oppi Untracht
- Robert G. Hart
- Albert Paley
- Henry Halem
- John McQueen
- Merry Renk
- Patti Warashina
- Robert Ebendorf
- Rude Osolnik
- Stephen De Staebler
- Viola Frey
- Lee Nordness
- Betty Cooke
- Claude Horan
- Garry Knox Bennett
- Helena Hernmarck
- Jun Kaneko
- Kenneth Bates
- Mark Levine
- Mary Lee Hu
- Jean Griffith
- Virginia Harvey
- Chunghi Choo
- Jack Earl
- Ka Kwong Hui
- Lia Cook
- Bob Winston
- Ron Nagle
- Tommy Simpson
- William Keyser
- Sandra Blain
- Dan Dailey
- Edwin Scheier
- Eleanor Moty
- James Bassler
- Judy McKie
- Richard Mawdsley
- Richard Shaw
- William Harper
- Paulus Berensohn
- Dorothy Barnes
- Helen Shirk
- Irena Brynner
- Nancy Crow
- Paul Marioni
- Ralph Baccera
- Therman Statom
- Fred Marer
- Adrian Saxe
- Anne Wilson
- Cynthia Bringle
- Eugene Pijanowski
- Hiroko Sato-Pijanowski
- James Krenov
- Joyce Scott
- Marjorie Schick
- Paul Stankard
- Christa C. Mayer Thurman
- Theodore Cohen
- David Ellsworth
- Gary Noffke
- Joan Livingstone
- John Glick
- Michael James
- Norman Schulman
- Thomas Patti
- Warren Seelig
- Alice Rooney
- Harlan Butt
- Jane Sauer
- John Cederquist
- Paula Winokur
- Robert Winokur
- Garth Clark
- Ana Lisa Hedstrom
- James Tanner
- Kurt Weiser
- Norma Minkowitz
- Tom Joyce
- Albert LeCoff
- Akio Takamori
- Howard Ben Tré
- Jason Pollen
- Kiff Slemmons
- Walter Hamady
- Stuart Kestenbaum
- Arturo Sandoval
- Marilyn da Silva
- Mark Lindquist
- Richard Notkin
- Robert Brady
- William Morris
- Nanette Laitman
- Adela Akers
- Glenda Arentzen
- Gyöngy Laky
- John Horn
- Robyn Horn
- Tony Hepburn
- Toots Zynsky
- Wendy Maruyama
- Lois Moran
- Benjamin Moore
- Bernard Bernstein
- Carol Shaw-Sutton
- Jamie Bennett
- Louis Marak
- Rosanne Somerson
- Robert Pfannebecker
- Ginny Ruffner
- John Garrett
- John Stephenson
- Rebecca Medel
- Ron Ho
- Susanne Stephenson
- William Hunter
- Janet Koplos
- Andrea Gill
- Anne Currier
- Dante Marioni
- Lewis Knauss
- Sharon Church
- Sherri Smith
- Thomas Loeser
- Bruce Pepich
- John Gill
- Jane Lackey
- Michael Hurwitz
- Judith Schaechter
- Bruce Metcalf
- William Carlson
- Tina Oldknow
- Nick Cave
- Michael Cooper
- Françoise Grossen
- Chris Gustin
- Myra Mimlitsch-Gray
- Hank Murta Adams
- Edward S. Cooke Jr.
- Mark Burns
- Thomas Gentille
- Thomas Hucker
- Mary Jackson
- Beth Lipman
- Consuelo Jimenez Underwood
- Susan Cummins
- Yoshiko Iwamoto Wada
- Sonya Clark
- Lisa Gralnick
- Katherine Gray
- Annabeth Rosen
- Bob Trotman
- Patricia Malarcher
- Teri Greeves
- Karen Hampton
- Nancy Koenigsberg
- Keith Lewis
- Kristina Madsen
- Mark Pharis
- Preston Singletary
- Tip Toland
- Carolyn Mazloomi
- Howard Risatti
- Lowery Stokes Sims
- Syd Carpenter
- Michael A. Cummings
- Einar and Jamex de la Torre
- Yuri Kobayashi
- Mark Newport
- Michael Puryear
- Diego Romero
- Lynda Watson
- Diana Baird N'Diaye
- Cindi Strauss
- Recipients of the Gold Medal for Consummate Craftsmanship
- Dorothy Liebes (1970)
- Anni Albers (1981)
- Harvey Littleton (1983)
- Lucy M. Lewis (1985)
- Margret Craver (1986)
- Peter Voulkos (1986)
- Gerry Williams (1986)
- Lenore Tawney (1987)
- Sam Maloof (1988)
- Ed Rossbach (1990)
- John Prip (1992)
- Beatrice Wood (1992)
- Alma Eikerman (1993)
- Douglass Morse Howell (1993)
- Marianne Strengell (1993)
- Robert C. Turner (1993)
- John Paul Miller (1994)
- Toshiko Takaezu (1994)
- Rudolf Staffel (1995)
- Bob Stocksdale (1995)
- Jack Lenor Larsen (1996)
- Ronald Hayes Pearson (1996)
- June Schwarcz (1996)
- Wendell Castle (1997)
- Ruth Duckworth (1997)
- Sheila Hicks (1997)
- Kenneth Ferguson (1998)
- Karen Karnes (1998)
- Warren MacKenzie (1998)
- Rudy Autio (1999)
- Dominic Di Mare (1999)
- L. Brent Kington (2000)
- Cynthia Schira (2000)
- Arline Fisch (2001)
- Gertrud Natzler (2001)
- Otto Natzler (2001)
- Don Reitz (2002)
- Kay Sekimachi (2002)
- William Daley (2003)
- Fred Fenster (2005)
- Dale Chihuly (2006)
- Paul Soldner (2008)
- Katherine Westphal (2009)
- Albert Paley (2010)
- Stephen De Staebler (2012)
- Betty Woodman (2014)
- Gerhardt Knodel (2016)
- Jun Kaneko (2018)
- Joyce J. Scott (2020)
- Jim Bassler (2022)
- Lia Cook (2022)
- Richard Marquis (2022)
- Judy Kensley McKie (2022)
- John McQueen (2022)
- Patti Warashina (2022)
- Nick Cave (2024)
- Wendy Maruyama (2024)
- Anne Wilson (2024)