Women art workers and the Arts and Crafts movement
By Zoë Thomas
Book Information
- Format: eBook
- ISBN: 978-1-5261-4045-6
- Published Date: May 2020
- Series: Gender in History
Description
This book constitutes the first comprehensive history of the network of women who worked at the heart of the English Arts and Crafts movement from the 1870s to the 1930s. Challenging the long-standing assumption that the Arts and Crafts simply revolved around celebrated male designers like William Morris, it instead offers a new social and cultural account of the movement, which simultaneously reveals the breadth of the imprint of women art workers upon the making of modern society. Thomas provides unprecedented insight into how women navigated authoritative roles as 'art workers' by asserting expertise across a range of interconnected cultures: from the artistic to the professional, intellectual, entrepreneurial and domestic. Through examination of newly discovered institutional archives and private papers, Thomas elucidates the critical importance of the spaces around which women conceptualised alternative creative and professional lifestyles.
Awards
2021
Winner of the Women's History Network Book Prize 2021
2022
Historians of British Art Award for a single-authored book with a subject between 1800-1960