Frances Louisa Goodrich

{{short description|American weaver and archivist}}

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| name = Frances Louisa Goodrich

| image = Photo of Frances Louisa Goodrich.jpg

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| birth_date = {{birth date|1856|9|15|mf=y}}

| birth_place = Binghamton, New York

| death_date = {{death date and age|1944|2|20|1856|9|15|mf=y}}

| death_place = Asheville, North Carolina

| education =

| field = Weaving, Fiber Arts

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| alma_mater = Yale School of Fine Arts

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Frances Louisa Goodrich (September 15, 1856 – February 20, 1944) was an American weaver, writer, and archivist. She is best known for founding the Allanstand Cottage Industries in 1887.{{cite book |last1=Koplos |first1=Janet |last2=Metcalf |first2=Bruce |title=Makers: a history of American studio craft |date=2010 |publisher=University of North Carolina press |location=Chapel Hill |isbn=9780807834138 |pages=135–136}}

Biography

Goodrich was born on September 15, 1856, in Binghamton, New York.{{cite web |title=Goodrich, Frances Louisa |url=https://www.ncpedia.org/biography/goodrich-frances |website=NCpedia |access-date=9 January 2024}} Her father was a Presbyterian minister and a proponent of the Social Gospel movement. She attended Yale School of Fine Arts and in 1890 she located to North Carolina where she was a volunteer teacher at College Hill.{{cite web |title=Frances Louisa Goodrich |url=https://www.history.swannanoavalleymuseum.org/frances-louisa-goodrich/ |website=Swannanoa Valley Museum & History Center |access-date=9 January 2024 |date=20 May 2020}} In 1895 she was given a handmade, overshot-woven Double Bow Knot coverlette.{{cite web |title=Double Bow Knot Coverlet |url=https://historicweaving.com/wordpress/double-bow-knot-coverlet/ |website=Historic Weaving |access-date=9 January 2024 |date=3 April 2013}} She admired the craftsmanship and she then turned her attention to the craft.

File:Woven coverlet double bow knot pattern.gif

In 1897 Goodrich established Allanstand Cottage Industries with the mission of providing a way for rural women to earn money and to keep the craft of Appalachian weaving alive.{{cite web |title=Craft Revival: Shaping Western North Carolina Past and Present |url=https://www.wcu.edu/library/DigitalCollections/CraftRevival/story/allanstand.html |website=Western Carolina University |access-date=9 January 2024}} Weaving was particularly suitable as a cash craft for rural women as it could be completed as time allowed, with the weaver simply marking their stopping point with a pin.

In 1900 Goodrich held the first exhibition of Allanstand crafts, and in 1908 she opened a store in the populated city of Asheville, North Carolina. In 1930 Goodrich helped organize the Southern Highland Handicraft Guild (now the Southern Highland Craft Guild) .{{cite web |title=Southern Highland Craft Guild |url=https://southernhighlandguild.org/ |website=Southern Highland Craft Guild |access-date=9 January 2024 |date=6 April 2024}}

Goodrich collected the traditional patterns for the looms. She also wrote a book entitled Mountain Homespun: The Crafts and People of the Southern Appalachians. It was published in 1931 by Yale University Press.{{cite web |last1=Goodrich |first1=Frances Louisa |title=Mountain homespun |url=https://archive.org/details/mountainhomespun00good/mode/2up |publisher=New Haven, Yale University Press; London, H. Milford, Oxford University Press, 1931. |access-date=9 January 2024 |date=1931}}

Goodrich donated her textile collection to the Southern Highland Craft Guild.{{cite web |title=Danielle Burke on Frances Louisa Goodrich |url=https://ashevillemade.com/danielle-burke-on-frances-louisa-goodrich/ |website=Asheville Made |access-date=9 January 2024}}{{cite web |title=Frances Louisa Goodrich |url=https://specialcollections.buncombecounty.org/frances-louisa-goodrich/ |website=Buncombe County Special Collections |access-date=10 January 2024 |date=30 March 2015}}

She died on February 20, 1944, in Asheville, North Carolina.

References