The Exhibition

America 1890 - 1916

America embraced the Arts and Crafts Movement and made it its own. The movement flourished on the East Coast, in the Midwest and in California, and included major figures such as Frank Lloyd Wright, Charles and Henry Greene, and Gustav Stickley. Despite its European origins, the movement acquired a particularly American form and expression that reflected the confidence of the relatively young nation. This can be seen especially in a radical new approach to the house and its interior, which remains influential to this day.

Exchanges of ideas between Britain and America were frequent and visible. The work of Ruskin, Morris, Ashbee and Baillie Scott was well known and had a significant influence. But American Arts and Crafts designers also looked to their native landscape and climate, to their own heritage and even to Japan. They took a much more commercial approach to Arts and Crafts, but maintained a strong sense of individuality and national identity in their work.