Biltmore Industries
The Evolution of the Craft Industry in Western North Carolina.
Asheville, North Carolina is known for its many
fine art galleries as well as folk
craft galleries. This art industry is so prevalent due to many early craft collectives, guilds, and cooperatives that later became industries that drove the economies
Southeastern states in the early twentieth century. Biltmore industries led primarily by Edith Vanderbilt brought
crafts into the Asheville
community, which later led to a highly trained craft
industry work force. This abundance of trained work provided
employees to fill the market that had been created by surrounding craft industries in Tallula Falls, Georgia, the Penland School in North Carolina, and Berea College. As the craft industry grew in the southeast, art became an important part of the economics of Western North Carolina, and continues to be important to the Asheville area to this day.
Edith Vanderbilt lived with her Husband George in a cottage on the Biltmore Estate, a large tract of
land bought by George at $2.25 per acre in
1890. Edith had long been a
woodcarver and
needlepoint artist, and therefore got involved with her local church group at
All Souls Church in Biltmore. As she learned to weave, and showed off her woodcarving skills, many local boys became interested and asked for lessons. In 1901, Edith held the her first woodcutting class in her own kitchen with four boy students. These classes grew in
popularity, and Edith soon recruited the help of Charlotte Yale and Eleanor Vance. As more and more children grew interested in crafts, the super intendent took notice and offered Vanderbilt and Yale teaching jobs at Asheville High School, however, due to increased
demand at Biltmore Estate Industries, they were forced to
decline. However, woodcarving and
cabinet making classes were nonetheless inducted into Asheville High School
curriculum the following semester with alternate
instructors.
Fabric production was very crude in the early 1900’s, wool was carded by
hand, and was dyed from natural dyes made from roots and
herbs in the area(yellow from
hickory bark, and
black walnut bark etc.) At one point, Edith Vanderbilt sent Vance and Yale on a trip to London and Scotland to study weaving
techniques, and
ultimately to retrive a one hundred year old fly shuttle loom.
Fly shuttles had been the
standard original model looms that had been brought from Europe; however, the shuttles were prone to
defect, therefore weavers became accustomed to pushing the
cord through by hand. This practice led to American made
looms being primarily manual rather than using a fly shuttle. The loom which was brought to
America and used as a model for woodworking classes to
duplicate. Reintroducing fly shuttle looms to American
craft workers revived traditional methods of weaving, and increased production of woven goods as well (because fly shuttle looms were much easier to produce work on quickly). Edith Vanderbilt also visited other craft studios in the area. In fact, she purchased two wool mechanical
cards used to clean fleece of burs, bugs, and dirt from the Reems Creek Mill. In
1915 Edith visited the Tryon Toymakers and Woodcarvers to hone her
skills in
woodcarving.
Young people in Asheville were being raised with the presence of industrious
art and craft influences all around them, at church and at
school, and many
parents worked in the craft industry as well. Biltmore Estate Industries was not alone in hiring people from the community to meet the growing demands for folk art and crafts such as hand woven
fabric and
handmade cabinets and furniture. By
1910 Biltmore Estate Industries was teaching cabinet making,
woodcarving,
weaving, and
metal work.
Asheville High was had folk art
curriculums in weaving and
wood work. The Penland School offered
higher education in crafts as well as the Pine Mountain Settlement school and Berea College. Biltmore Forrest was cut to provide
ample wood supplies for the growing
furniture and
cabinet industries, and the
hillsides of the
Blue Ridge Mountains was provided perfect fields to raise sheep as
Edith Vanderbilt had done prior to receiving the old loom from
England.
John C. Campbell (who founded the
John C. Campbell Folk School) called Biltmore Estate Industries a “Church and independent school,” in that it began with church groups, and grew to be an independently funded school, separate from any
institution or
government agenda. It then spread its influence to public schools and eventually to a market which came to drive the economy of Asheville and much of western
North Carolina. However, as Mrs. Vanderbilt aged she grew less industrious, and eventually was forced to sell Biltmore
Estate Industries to
Fred L. Seely.
When the operation moved off of the Biltmore Estate and behind the
Grove Park Inn in
1917, Seely shortened the name to simply Biltmore Industries. For a long while, the “
Homespun Shops” survived solely through Seely’s personal contributions. However, the demand for fine handmade linens grew, and Biltmore Industries rose to meet the demand. At the
peak of production in 1933, Biltmore Industries employed
seven women and forty men full time on looms.
The early craft industry in western North Carolina was driven by community towards industry, rather than most modern work models which stem from industry towards profit. The doors to the Homespun Shops are carved with the adage “Life Without Industry is Guilt, Industry Without Art is Brutality”, this saying perfectly summarizes how Biltmore Estate Industries under Edith Vanderbilt aimed to build character and give young people an urge to be both creative and industrious in life, which later gave the craft industry an elegant pride in its own work.
To this day, Asheville, North Carolina is an art town, the streets are lined with art galleries, craft shops, independent film theatres, and art supply stores. This culture is rooted within the earliest influences of industry in this area, primarily, Biltmore Estate
Industries.
Works Cited
Eaton, Allen Hendershott. Handicrafts of the southern Highlands.
New York, Dover Publications, 1973.
Goodrich, Frances Louisa.
Mountain Homespun. New Haven, Yale University Press, 1931.
Jones, Bruce. “The Story of Making Biltmore Handwoven Homespuns”, “Biltmore
Estate Industries: An
Arts &
Crafts Enterprise in Asheville”, and “We Grew From a School…” Assorted Short Articles from
Grovewood Gallery archives,
Asheville, NC.
Whisnant, David E. All that is
Native &
Fine.
Chapel Hill:
University of North Carolina Press, 1983.