File:American homes and gardens (1908) (17965581680).jpg

Title: American homes and gardens
Identifier: americanhomesgar51908newy (find matches)
Year: 1905 (1900s)
Authors:
Subjects: Architecture, Domestic; Landscape gardening
Publisher: New York : Munn and Co
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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(HEN, less than a dozen years ago, a group of summer visitors to quaint old Deerfield, Mass., conceived the idea of reviving some of the old-time arts, especially the em- broidery still produced by some of the descendants of the early settlers, they probably had no idea of starting an in- dustry that would spread in different directions until there would be, as there is to-day, what are called arts and crafts shops in twenty-five different States, not only giving employ- ment to many who need it, but adding numerous household articles, both useful and beautiful for all time to come. For just here let it be said that these reproductions of old time articles are honestly made and made to last, not yielding up their usefulness by contact with the world as do so many of the machine-made products of the modern factory. This revival of the old arts and crafts is a sort of New England renaissance, the products sometimes changed to adapt them more closely to modern needs and sometimes exact copies of things that were made centuries ago before the Mayflower crossed the ocean. Often designs of lace, embroidery, quilt or rug have come down from mother to daughter in a sort of artistic succession, as generally one member of the family inherited the taste and the skill that make her handiwork as acceptable to-day as was that of her forebear a hundred years ago. Sometimes the art would seem to have vanished, for nobody had skill enough to exe- cute it, and then it would be revived as some girl would "hark back" to the ancestor who had had the nimble fingers and the artistic sense, and then she, too, would be able to re- produce the forgotten stitches or the forms of some cherished bit of needle work or lace, yellow with age and almost ready to crumble beneath her touch. Perhaps it was when the discovery was made that these articles, reproduced to-day exactly like those of the olden time, found ready sale and good prices, that the necessary impetus was given to what has now become a recognized industry, employing men, women, boys and girls at profitable wages. The work differs in different localities. It remained for a Marblehead physician to find in the industry, not only a source of benefit to the world at large, but a means of treat- ing his patients suffering from nervous diseases in various stages. He has built, on a rocky point that runs out into the sea on the rough coast of Marblehead, a sanitarium and handi- craft shop combined. It is almost surrounded by the blue waters of the sea, bluer nowhere than at Marblehead, in con- trast with the white foam of the waves breaking on the craggy shore; and the air is so full of health that the environ- ment must hold a balm for even the sickest nerves. But the wise physician who evolved this method of healing, holds the idea that mind and body must be occupied a part of each day if the strained and worn nerves would get back to normal condition. So his patients take up weaving with the hand- looms made in ancient Colonial days. Perhaps they will
Text Appearing After Image:
Rug-making as a Cure for Nervousness

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