Anti-domestic: An Alternative Architectural History of Gustav Stickley

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

Although Gustav Stickley is most remembered for furniture and furnishings, a central principle of his design philosophy was the creation of harmonious residential environments at the scale of the home itself. He espoused these ideals in his magazine The Craftsman, through his “Home Builders Club,” as well as his Craftsman book, disseminating the ideology and design drawings of a progressive homelife built on simple, flexible, and environmentally integrated domesticity. Through these, Stickley became synonymous with the single-family home. Yet Stickley’s career and personal life were much more mobile and urban than this narrative would suggest, and the man himself held relationships with many building types ranging from the utilitarian to the ultra-modern. Even his famous Log House in Morris Plains was not intended to be a house but a camp lodge—a rural yet communal gathering place.

Led by Dr. Willa Granger, our new Curator of Education and Collections, this series will consider the broader architectural history of Gustav Stickley, exploring the diverse spaces and places that facilitated his entrepreneurship. We will examine and hypothesize about how Stickley existed in, reacted to, and shaped buildings ranging from the furniture shop at Auburn State Prison to his factory in Syracuse and his tall building in Manhattan, down to the very infrastructure—train networks, lumberyards, and beyond—that enabled the Craftsman vision. In telling this alternative architectural history, we can better understand the man, positioning him less exclusively as a visionary Arts and Crafts crusader and more as a businessman and property owner navigating the complex and contradictory terrain of Progressive-era America.

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR:

Dr. Willa Granger is the newly appointed Associate Curator of Education and Collections at the Stickley Museum at Craftsman Farms. She holds a Ph.D. in Architectural History from the University of Texas at Austin. In 2021–2022, she held a fellowship at the Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University, and in the spring of 2023 she was named a Tyson Scholar of American Art at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. Her work has been published in the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Buildings & Landscapes, and the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, as well as in popular outlets such as the Architectural League of New York’s Urban Omnibus and Platform. In 2019 Willa contributed essays and assisted with the organization of the Harry Ransom Center’s exhibition, The Rise of Everyday Design: The Arts and Crafts Movement in Britain and America (Yale University Press). She has received publication awards from both the Vernacular Architecture Forum and from the Southeastern Society of Architectural Historians. Willa joins the Stickley Museum after holding a faculty position at Florida Atlantic University.

A La Carte

Member Price: $30 / session

Non-Member Price: $35 / session

Full Course

Member Price: All 6 sessions for $150 (one session free)

Non-Member Price: All 6 sessions for $210