Crafting empire : intersections of Irish and Canadian women's history

The home arts movement is a valuable and unique part of the history of late 19th-century art and display practices and their intersection with Victorian women's working lives. Centrally organized through the London-based Home Arts and Industries Association (HAIA), the British home arts movement promoted the concept of handicrafts as an alternative mode of production through the ideal of rural workshops for the hand production of exquisitely crafted objects. Both the Dun Emer Guild (Dublin, 1902) and the Canadian Handicrafts Guild (Montreal, 1905) subscribed to the home arts ideals of advocating the handmade, supporting rural regeneration, and promoting artistic innovation as these gained a global currency at events such as international expositions and world fairs. At the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair, both the Irish Dun Emer Guild and the Canadian Handicrafts Guild displayed craft objects and their makers for the many international visitors welcomed to the Irish Pavilion and the Canadian Building. Within the Fair, the Dun Emer Guild exhibited at the Irish Industrial Exhibition, organized by the Irish government's Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction. This pavilion presented a variety of craftwork produced by Irish home arts and industries associations. Similarly, the Canadian Handicrafts Guild--still, at this time, the Home Arts and Handicrafts Committee of the Montreal branch of the Women's Art Association of Canada (WAAC)--received a substantial grant from the Canadian Department of Agriculture. [Abridged Publication Abstract]