Julia Hoffman and the Arts and Crafts Society of Portland: An Aesthetic Response to Industrialization

Abstract

RICHARD S. CHRISTEN Julia Hoffman and the Arts and Crafts Society of Portland An Aesthetic Response toIndustrialization ON OCTOBER 9, 1907, NEARLY 150 people met at the Portland Art Museum to adopt a constitution, elect officers, and enlist members for a new organization: theArts and Crafts Society of Portland.1 Among those present was JuliaHoffman, one of Portland's leading citizens and perhaps itsmost avid craftsperson. More than any other individual, Hoffman had generated an interest in handicrafts in the city. She also helped draft the new society's constitution and by-laws and, as one of its original trustees, its second president, and itsprimary spokesperson for nearly thirtyyears, infused the institution with her vision of the arts and crafts. Despite her responsibility for its existence, theArts and Crafts Society of Portland was more than Julia Hoffman's personal creation. Like similar groups that appeared in cities across theUnited States during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the Portland society was part of an arts and crafts movement thatflourished from the i88os to the 1920s inEngland, theUnited States, and to a lesser degree, the European continent. At its core, the arts and craftsmovement was a response to industrial ization? a loose network of individuals and institutions committed not somuch to a specific artistic style or method as to an attitude and sensi bility that something was amiss in themodern, industrial world.2 Attacks leveled by English designer, poet, and socialist William Morris against the nineteenth-century industrial revolution originally inspired themovement. Machines had undoubtedly increased efficiency, freed humans frommuch drudgery, and multiplied the quantity of consumer goods, but according 510 OHQ vol. 109, no. 4 ? 2008 Oregon Historical Society Courtesy of the Oregon College ofArt andCraft In itsearlyyears, the Arts and CraftsSociety ofPortland oftenheld classes, likethis onephotographed byJuliaHoffman, in thehomes of its mostlymiddle class and affluent patrons. The societyeventuallyopened a schooldowntown. toMorris, the cost had been unacceptable. Product quality and beauty had declined as cheap, poorly designed objects flooded themarket. The shift from craftsperson tomachine operator drained industrial workers of creativity and separated themfrom theirmaterials, products, and customers. Laborers took littlepride or pleasure indemeaning toil and suffered dramatic losses in social and financial status.3 Building on the insights of JohnRuskin and other Romantics, Morris countered industrializations harmful effectswith what historian Eileen Boris refers to as "the craftsman ideal."4This archetype fused two particular notions that Morris believed had been trampled by the factory system: first, an aesthetic ideal ? that natural beauty, simplicity, and usefulness should characterize all objects and permeate everyday life; and second, a theory of labor ? a commitment towork that brings joy, dignity, and personal satisfaction to laborers.Morris believed pre-industrial artisans had embodied both notions. Because theirwork combined design and creation, he argued, itwas stimulating, pleasurable, and respected within the community; their products, created for specific purposes and people, were original, practical, and the epitome of elegant beauty. Hop Christen, Julia Hoffman and theArts and Crafts Society of Portland 511 ML'Mifafi* Hi i ^^MgB^M /w/ia Hoffman was thedrivingforce behind thearts and crafts movement in early twentieth-century Portland. She created thisself-portraitin 1885,a few years afterhermove toPortlandfrom Salt Lake City. ing to return to these conditions, Morris's answer to industrializa tion looked backward rather than forward. His was a reactionary conviction that attention to pre industrial tools, processes, and design would reverse two of the most nefarious effects of the fac tory system. He was convinced that, iffreed from the slavery of machines, laborers would again make beautiful things and per form work "worth doing ... of itselfpleasant to do, and ... done under such conditions as would make it neither over-wearisome nor over-anxious."5 Hoffman and other leaders of theArts and Crafts Society of Portland possessed Morris's desire to cultivate an appreciation for craftsmanship and handicrafts, but they had little of his enthu siasm for fundamental economic and social change. Like that of its counterparts inBoston and other American cities, the Portland society's goal was aesthetic rather than social or economic; they wished to counter theunsightliness of the city's commercial and industrial growth without slowing itsgrowth or challenging the status quo. To achieve thisaim, the...