Craft in America presents a compelling and essential portrait of American culture through an extraordinary range of handmade objects
Handwork: Handcrafted Objects that Made America is a visually stunning, deeply inspiring celebration of America’s spirit through ordinary, surprising, and overlooked handcrafted objects spanning more than 250 years. Edited by Emily Zaiden, director and lead curator of the Craft in America Center, with a foreword by Carol Sauvion, the visionary behind the Peabody Award–winning PBS series Craft in America, this book is part of a sweeping national initiative marking 250 years since the Declaration of Independence.
Grouping handmade objects into four curated sections—DWELL, FEED, FURNISH, ADORN—Handworktakes readers on a journey through time and across the multiplicity of cultures that have made America, uncovering the powerful stories behind objects that shaped American life. From a nineteenth-century Kiowa cradleboard and a silver bowl made by Paul Revere to celebrate a rebellion, to an antique Hawaiian papa heʻenalu—or surfboard—and a prototype for an iconic sneaker, these objects reflect innovation, resistance, artistry, and community—and were all crafted by hand.
