"I hate pretty work": Madeline Yale Wynne and the American craft revival

Abstract

This paper presents the life and work of Madeline Yale Wynne, a craftsperson, painter, and writer active during American craft revival of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. While highly acclaimed in her own time, especially for her short stories and her jewelry, Wynne is rarely acknowledged as a noteworthy figure in present-day exhibitions and essays addressing the American craft revival. Her biography serves as a case study for how closer examination of one participant's contribution can influence interpretations of the revival as a whole. ☐ This study focuses primarily on Wynne's jewelry and the circumstances leading to her involvement in the American Arts and Crafts movement. A review of primary sources--surviving objects, photographs of missing objects, correspondence, and contemporary articles--offers a clear picture of how various aspects of her upbringing and personal life, as well as contemporary cultural trends, influenced how the artist approached her work and the type of objects she made. ☐ Wynne's life was complex. The contributing cultural factors governing major decisions she made and obstacles she encountered beg a broader interpretation of the influences of other craft revival contributors.