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Roycroft Blog / Happy New Year!

As one of my favorite Roycroft Print Shop door engravings states, "Blessed is that man who has found his work." Here's to everyone finding their work and having the best year!

- Sue

Roycroft Blog / Merry Christmas!

Wishing you a joyous holiday, with this 1910 Christmas postcard,

- Sue

Roycroft Blog / Post Office Holiday Mailings

December 2014 at East Aurora's post office is not unlike that of 1906. Even as we approach crunch time for the post office to make deliveries for the holiday, the same push to get things shipped was on for the original Roycrofters. The local newspaper reported, “The Post Office force is working overtime at this season of the year. Each day sees loads of mail enter and depart from the office. The greatest amount comes from the Roycroft Shops.”

 

The Roycroft Mail Truck.

If you have yet to find that perfect gift, come check out the Copper Shop gallery on the Roycroft Campus. One-of-a-kind gifts are our specialty. 

- Sue

Roycroft Blog / December 8, 1898

As reported on December 8, 1898 in the East Aurora Advertiser, “Last Saturday evening, the Roycroft Shop distributed 4 hundred dollars in cash, as Christmas presents among its employees. The “Shop” has paid out for wages an average of $1,200 a month since last July, and before another Christmas comes this amt. will doubtless be much increased.”

In 1898, the number of Roycroft staff would have been about 50, so if the bonus was distributed equally, it would have amounted to 8 dollars each. That is $228.56 in today’s dollars. A tidy sum in the days when few businesses gave bonuses. 

- Sue

Roycroft Blog / Roycroft Goodies

A popular Roycroft holiday item in the early 1900’s was the “Goodie Box.” This wooden box was approximately 2 feet long, 1 foot high and 10” wide and was filled with an assortment of foodstuffs from the Roycroft Farms - sausage, nuts, honey, maple sugar, cheese, jam. The advertising slogan for the box was “From Farm to Family”. 

Nowadays you can shop at the Roycroft Copper Shop Gallery this holiday season to create your own box of Roycroft “goodies.” Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily until Christmas eve. 

- Sue

November - Native American Heritage Month and Thanksgiving

       At this time of year when Americans get ready to tuck into their Thanksgiving holiday dinners, I would like to remind them that November is also Native American Heritage month. 

       The Roycroft has several connections to Native American culture. Elbert Hubbard’s son, Ralph, was very interested in Native American culture. He went out west in the 1920's to learn more firsthand and later invited Boy Scout Troops to his ranch where he taught them  Native American dances and culture. Today’s Kwahadi Dance group is a direct descendant of Ralph Hubbard’s early work.

       Another link between Native American culture and the Roycroft is the fact that the American Arts and Crafts Movement (of which the Roycroft was a part) was heavily influenced by Native American decorative arts. Authentic Navajo rugs and ceramics were often used in Arts and Crafts interiors and A&C designers were inspired by the colors and shapes in Native American designs.

        A Native American ritual you may wish to honor this Thanksgiving holiday is the Seneca Nation or, Haudenosaunee, Thanksgiving Address. Many non-native Americans are not aware of this Iroquois address which is over 1,000 years old; passed on from generation to generation in the oral tradition. This address gives thanks for everything we are given from the ground to the sky and is spoken at the opening and closing of all ceremonial and governmental gatherings held by the six Iroquois nations throughout the year. 

 May your Thanksgiving be filled with thanks, love and respect,

-Sue