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

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.

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

  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.