Arts and Crafts Movement1900-1939By Chelsea, Lauren, Kirsten, and Carly

Setting the scene…Rapid social, economic, technological, civic, and cultural changeIndustrialization – rise of machines and impersonal factory workDeclining birth and death ratesWWIChanging roles of women: women start gaining rights (e.g. the right to vote in 1920)Economic instability (The Great Depression begins in 1929)

Scientific View vs. Holistic View

Scientific view of person and physiology of disease vs. holistic view of person (mind-body unity)X-Rays

Getting back to a simpler time

John Ruskin mid-19th century British university professorBelieved that machines and factory work limited human happinessAdvocated a return to simpler times

Dr. Herbert J. Hall, Adolf Meyer, and William Rush Dunton searched for ways to humanize the care of chronically ill patients

Promoted the “work cure” rather than the “rest cure”Championed “sheltered workshops” where talented people earned a living by making authentic objects. The goal of this was to give spiritual support and to help employ people with mental and physical disabilities.

Arts and Crafts Societies

Arts and Crafts Movement spread from Great Britain to the United States, mainly by Gustav Stickley.The U.S. was accepting of this movement because classes desired unique, authentic objects and criticized mass produced items, idlenessHandicraft clubs and arts and crafts societies began popping up around the U.S.

e.g. Boston Society of Arts and Crafts (1901)

Herbert James Hall “called his institution a ‘school of handicrafts,’ where patients became ‘artisans,’ tasting ‘the wholesomeness of a life of labor without the hardships and trials [of] the real industrial world” (Quiroga, 1995, p. 93).

Before WWIClinics were created for patients with chronic physical illness

e.g. Consolation House

Goal of OT was to return clients to state of financial independence

e.g. Arequipa Sanatorium – clients were encouraged to earn their keep by making pottery

Vocational purpose of OT paves way for programs to treat wounded soldiers and sailors returning from WWI

During WWIOccupational Therapy was founded in 1917, the same year that WWI began.U.S. Army Rehabilitation program was based on the Reconstruction ModelSociety felt it was their social and moral responsibility to rehabilitate soldiersWWI forced field of OT to clarify its role and standardize training and practice

During WWIOT was a means to keep soldiers on the front.

“These war experiences showed us what was obvious before, that idleness is a dangerous thing. Every maimed soldier was likely to become a centre of social unrest and no nation can stand that. There were numerous cases of wounds in the hand. Three or four months were lost by these during ordinary medical treatments; with occupational therapy available, the time was brought down to as many weeks, and the men returned to the front. This is entirely possible in civil life” (Quiroga, 1995, p. 145). –Joel Goldwait, orthopedic surgeon, in a lecture givenat the meeting of MAOT in 1921

After WWIThere were six people in attendance at the first meeting for the National Society for the promotion of occupational therapy300 people attended the society’s third meeting in 1919This demonstrates the development of OT as a field during WWI.

Womeon’s Changing RolesWomen gained the right to vote in 1920Elizabeth Upham started the first OT program at Milwaukee Downer CollegeWomen who were nurses were under the control of male physicians whereas OT was an opportunity for women to be autonomous.

Occupational Therapy Schools

Glaser argued: eye, hand, mind, and creative imagination are stimulated by arts and craftsAs a result, occupational therapy schools began to offer courses in occupations such as needlework, weaving, metalwork, bookbinding, and leatherwork. The missions and philosophies of occupational therapy and the arts-and-crafts-movement were so intertwined over time that it became hard to distinguish between the two.

Economic issues led to the demise of workshopsHowever, the impact of the arts and crafts movement remained

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