Frances Louisa Goodrich (September 15, 1856 – February 20, 1944) was an American weaver, writer, and archivist. She is best known for founding the Allanstand Cottage Industries in 1887.[1]
Biography
Goodrich was born on September 15, 1856, in Binghamton, New York.[2] Her father was a Presbyterian minister and a proponent of the Social Gospel movement.[1] She attended Yale School of Fine Arts and in 1890 she located to North Carolina where she was a volunteer teacher at College Hill.[3] In 1895 she was given a handmade, overshot-woven Double Bow Knot coverlette.[4] She admired the craftsmanship and she then turned her attention to the craft.
In 1897 Goodrich established Allanstand Cottage Industries with the mission of providing a way for rural women to earn money and to keep the craft of Appalachian weaving alive.[5] Weaving was particularly suitable as a cash craft for rural women as it could be completed as time allowed, with the weaver simply marking their stopping point with a pin.[1]
In 1900 Goodrich held the first exhibition of Allanstand crafts, and in 1908 she opened a store in the populated city of Asheville, North Carolina.[1] In 1930 Goodrich helped organize the Southern Highland Handicraft Guild (now the Southern Highland Craft Guild) .[2][6]
Goodrich collected the traditional patterns for the looms. She also wrote a book entitled Mountain Homespun: The Crafts and People of the Southern Appalachians. It was published in 1931 by Yale University Press.[7]
Goodrich donated her textile collection to the Southern Highland Craft Guild.[8][9]
