Craft Horizons

Craft Horizons is a periodical magazine that documents and exhibits crafts, craft artists, and other facets of the field of American craft. The magazine was founded by Aileen Osborn Webb and published from 1941 to 1979. It included editorials, features, technical information, letters from readers, and photographs of craft artists, their tools, and their works. The magazine both "documented and shaped" the changing history of the American craft movement. It was succeeded by American Craft in 1979. History Craft Horizons was founded and initially edited by Aileen Osborn Webb, who also founded the organization now known as the American Craft Council. Craft Horizons began as an untitled newsletter in November 1941, sent out to artists who had purchased stock in, and consigned works to, America House. One of Webb's earliest initiatives in support of craft, America House was a New York retail shop that featured pieces from artists around the country. The shop was intended to provide a marketplace for rural artists in particular. Among other content, Volume 1, Issue 1 featured an essay by Richard F. Bach, a curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, asking “What is a Craftsman?”. Throughout its nearly forty-year history, Craft Horizons sought to create networks of craftspeople and to stimulate discussion around the nature of craft as well as the work of craftspeople. The first titled issue appeared in May 1942, with a print run of 3,500 copies. In 1947, Mary Lyon, a daughter of S. S. McClure, became the first professional editor of Craft Horizons. During the 1940s and 1950s, Aileen Osborn Webb still continued to write editorials. She often addressed professional and economic issues, such as the need for high standards of design, fair wages, education of the public, and craft-focused exhibitions. In 1951 Craft Horizons began working with Westbury Publishing and went from a quarterly periodical to publishing six times a year.