Roycroft

Infobox nrhp
name = Roycroft Campus
nrhp_type = nhl

---

caption = The Copper Shop, first building of the Roycroft Campus to be restored
location = Main and South Grove St., East Aurora, NY
nearest_city = Buffalo
lat_degrees = 42 | lat_minutes = 46 | lat_seconds = 04 | lat_direction = N
long_degrees = 78 | long_minutes = 37 | long_seconds = 04 | long_direction = W
area =
built = 1895
architect =
architecture =
designated= February 26, 1986cite web|url=http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=1460&ResourceType=District
title=Roycroft Campus|date=2007-09-18|work=National Historic Landmark summary listing|publisher=National Park Service]
added = November 08, 1974cite web|url=http://www.nr.nps.gov/|title=National Register Information System|date=2007-01-23|work=National Register of Historic Places|publisher=National Park Service]
visitation_num =
visitation_year =
refnum = 74001236
mpsub =
governing_body = Roycroft Organization

Roycroft was a reformist community of craft workers and artists which formed part of the Arts and Crafts movement in the USA. Elbert Hubbard founded the community in 1895 in the village of East Aurora, Erie County, New York, near Buffalo. Participants were known as Roycrofters. The work and philosophy of the group, often referred to as the Roycroft movement, had a strong influence on the development of American architecture and design in the early 20th century.

The name Roycroft was chosen after the printers, Samuel and Thomas Roycroft, who made books in London from about 1650-1690. And beyond this, the word "roycroft" had a special significance to Elbert Hubbard, meaning "King's Craft". In guilds of early modern Europe, king's craftsmen were guild members who had achieved a high degree of skill and therefore made things for the King. The Roycroft insignia was borrowed from the monk Cassidorius, a 13th century bookbinder and illuminator.

Elbert Hubbard had been influenced by the ideas of William Morris on a visit to England. He was unable to find a publisher for his book "Little Journeys", so inspired by Morris's Kelmscott Press, decided to set up his own private press to print the book himself, founding Roycroft Press.

His championing of the Arts and Crafts approach attracted a number of visiting craftspeople to East Aurora, and they formed a community of printers, furniture makers, metalsmiths, leathersmiths, and bookbinders. A quotation from John Ruskin formed the Roycroft "creed":

:"A belief in working with the head, hand and heart and mixing enough play with the work so that every task is pleasurable and makes for health and happiness".

The inspirational leadership of Hubbard attracted a group of almost 500 people by 1910, and millions more knew of him through his essay "A Message to Garcia".

In 1915 Hubbard and his wife, noted suffragette Alice Moore Hubbard, died in the sinking of RMS "Lusitania", and the Roycroft community went into a gradual decline.

14 original Roycroft buildings are located in the area of South Grove and Main Street in East Aurora. Known as the "Roycroft Campus", this rare survival of an art colony was awarded National Historic Landmark status in 1986.,cite web|url=PDFlink| [http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NHLS/Text/74001236.pdf "Roycroft Campus", July 1985, by Carolyn Pitts] |760 KiB |title=National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination|date=1985-07|publisher=National Park Service] ,cite web|url=PDFlink| [http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NHLS/Photos/74001236.pdf Roycroft Campus--Accompanying 3 photos, exterior, from 1973.] |732 KiB |title=National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination|date=1985-07|publisher=National Park Service]

The Elbert Hubbard Roycroft Museum in East Aurora is the main collection and research centre for the work of the Roycrofters.

References

ee also

* American craft
* Frank Lloyd Wright
* Gustav Stickley

Further reading

* Champney, Freeman (1968) "Art & glory; the story of Elbert Hubbard" Crown Publishers, New York, [http://worldcat.org/oclc/274494 OCLC 274494]
* Hamilton, Charles Franklin (1973) "As Bees in Honey Drown: Elbert Hubbard and the Roycrofters" A.S. Barnes, South Brunswick, ISBN 0-498-01052-X
* Cathers, David M. (1981) "Furniture of the American Arts and Crafts Movement: Stickley and Roycroft Mission Oak" New American Library, New York, ISBN 0-453-00397-4
* Via, Marie and Searl, Marjorie (eds.) (1994) "Head, Heart, and Hand: Elbert Hubbard and the Roycrofters" University of Rochester Press, Rochester, N.Y., ISBN 1-878822-43-8
* Turgeon, Kitty and Rust, Robert (1998) "The Arts and Crafts Home" Friedman/Fairfax Publishers, New York, ISBN 1-56799-455-5
* Rust, Robert "et al." (2000) "The Roycroft Campus" ("Images of America" series) Arcadia Publishing, Charleston, SC, ISBN 0-7524-1344-9

External links

* [http://www.roycroftcampuscorporation.com Roycroft Organization]
* [http://www.roycroftinn.com/inn/inn_history.htm Roycroft Inn, East Aurora]
* [http://www.arts-crafts.com/archive/hdavis.shtml The Roycroft Community 1894-1938 by Hilary Davis]
* [http://www.arts-crafts.com/archive/ehubbard.shtml The Arts & Crafts Movement: People: Elbert Hubbard]
* [http://freenet.buffalo.edu/bah/a/archsty/a-c/roy/hp/index.html The Roycroft Campus]
* [http://www.ralaweb.com Roycrofters At Large Association]
* [http://findingaid.winterthur.org/html/HTML_Finding_Aids/COL0254.htm The Winterthur Library] Overview of an archival collection on the Roycrofters