RoycroftCampusCorporation

What Do Cleopatra, Socrates & Paganini Have in Common?

What do Cleopatra, Socrates and Paganini have in common? Why the Roycroft Inn of course! Elbert Hubbard brought together politicians, businessmen, intellectuals and artists from across the ages - some he had actually met and others he only figuratively rubbed elbows with. 

A small, “Philistine-sized” promotional pamphlet about the Inn was published in 1923. It described the amusements, the food, Salon and accommodations.  At the end of the pamphlet was a chapter titled “The Roycroft Hall of Fame”, further described as follows: “The sleeping-rooms of The Roycroft Inn are not numbered. Each room bears the name of one of the world’s great; and the furnishings are carried out in harmony with the character of the personages the room is named for.”

 

These personages (Rooms) are: (Michel)Angelo, Aristotle, Jane Austen, Beethoven, Elizabeth Barrett, (Sara) Bernhardt, Rosa Bonheur, Brahms, Charlotte Bronte, Robert Browning, Burne-Jones, John Burroughs, Chopin, Cleopatra, Darwin, Thomas Edison, George Eliot, Emerson, Benjamin Franklin, Elizabeth Fry, Hetty Green, Caroline Herschel, William Herschel, Victor Hugo, Alexander Von Humboldt. Anne Hutchinson, Robert Ingersoll, Liza Lehmann, Leonardo (da Vinci), Liszt, William Morris, Paganini, Tom Paine, Pericles, Plato, Raphael, Rembrandt, Rossetti, John Ruskin, Clara Schumann, Socrates, Herbert Spencer, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Theodora, Henry Thoreau, Richard Wagner, Alfred Russel Wallace, Whistler, Walt Whitman, Mary Wollstonecraft.

 

While Elbert was on Campus he would call guests by the name of their room - so you could be Cleopatra or Socrates or Ruskin, et al for the duration of your stay. Today, the rooms are still identified by names and not numbers.

 

- Sue

Monday Mottos

Those who can do; those who can not, organize a class and show others how.

• Elbert Hubbard

 

From One Hundred & One Epigrams, According to Elbert Hubbard, published by Roycroft Campus Press, East Aurora, NY. For sale at the Roycroft Copper Shop.

 

Happy Birthday to Geminis Elbert & Alice

June is the birth month for both Elbert and Alice Hubbard. Alice’s birthday was the first celebration in the month on the 7th and Elbert’s was on the 19th. June is such a pretty time of year in WNY, what a perfect month for birthday parties!

 

 

Monday Mottos

Think twice before you speak and then talk to yourself. 

• Elbert Hubbard

 

From One Hundred & One Epigrams, According to Elbert Hubbard, published by Roycroft Campus Press, East Aurora, NY. For sale at the Roycroft Copper Shop.

June 1895, the Philistine Begins

In June of 1895,  the first Philistine was published. According to Paul McKenna, in his book  “A History & Bibliography of the Roycroft Printing Shop”, the Philistine was meant to be a collection of satirical essays by multiple contributors. Once Elbert owned it, advertisements increased in number, other writers decreased and by the January 1899 issue he wrote a manifesto declaring that he would be the sole writer henceforth.

 

He announced that collaborators “form too heavy a tail on the kite” and “All parties are notified not to hitch their wagons to this star.” The Philistine then became Elbert’s communication tool featuring only his interpretations of the day.

 

Two month’s later, in the March 1899 issue, an untitled article by Hubbard would bring him and the Roycroft the fame he had dreamed of attaining since leaving Larkin Soap Co. 

 

- Sue

Monday Mottos

Thirty-two is an attractive age. Many like it so well that they cling right there.

• Elbert Hubbard

 

From One Hundred & One Epigrams, According to Elbert Hubbard, published by Roycroft Campus Press, East Aurora, NY. For sale at the Roycroft Copper Shop.

 

Decoration Day, Memorial Day

Decoration Day, now known as Memorial Day, began after the Civil War. The country had lost so many sons and fathers that families would gather with a picnic at the cemetery in the early Spring to decorate their graves with flowers and flags. After being adopted as a national holiday, it became known as Memorial Day, a time to remember all fallen veterans of all wars.  

Just as we often see veterans in uniform - home on leave from Iraq or Afghanistan - Elbert Hubbard remembered seeing Civil War veterans in their uniforms after the war had ended.  

This Memorial Day, remember our veterans' sacrifice for our nation and thank veterans you know for helping to preserve the freedoms we now enjoy.

- Sue 

Monday Mottos

They will talk anyway!

• Elbert Hubbard

 

From One Hundred & One Epigrams, According to Elbert Hubbard, published by Roycroft Campus Press, East Aurora, NY. For sale at the Roycroft Copper Shop.

 

Remembering Elbert & Alice

On May 23, 1915, at 3 p.m. in East Aurora, a memorial service was held to honor Roycroft founder,  Elbert Hubbard and his second wife and business partner, Alice Hubbard. They died in the sinking of the ill-fated Lusitania, off the Old Head of Kinsdale, Ireland, on May 7 of that year as the result of a German U-Boat torpedo attack.

 

Hubbard, being a lightning rod of controversy, had many friends and foes both locally and internationally. The memorial brought out over 2,000 people in this small village for a procession that went down Main Street and then turned down South Grove Street past the Inn and ended, rightly so, outdoors at the Roycroft Pavilion in Hamlin Park. 

 

The Roycrofters had a memorial boulder placed on the Roycroft Campus grounds one year later. The boulder is said to have been taken from Cazenovia Creek where Elbert and Roycrofters often went on hikes and picnics. Originally the boulder was placed at the end of the drive then called Emerson Way at Main Street. It has since been relocated to the front of the Chapel. The copper plaque on the boulder states: 

 

Erected July 2, 1916

To the Memory of 

Elbert and Alice Hubbard

Elbert Hubbard

Born June 19, 1856

Bloomington, Illinois

Alice Hubbard

Born June 7, 1861

Wales Center, N.Y.

Both were lost in the Irish Sea with the 

Lusitania May 7, 1915

They lived and Died Fearlessly

 

 

Monday Mottos

There was one who thought himself above me, and he was above me until he had that thought.

• Elbert Hubbard

 

From One Hundred & One Epigrams, According to Elbert Hubbard, published by Roycroft Campus Press, East Aurora, NY. For sale at the Roycroft Copper Shop.