Roycroft History and Lecture Series

Inspired by Elbert Hubbard’s own belief in stimulating his workers with lectures, the Roycroft is excited to bring speakers back to the Campus.

The Roycroft Campus is offering a Spring Lecture Series. The presentations will be offered both in-person and virtually through Zoom. Our first talk is on Miriam Hubbard, the daughter of Elbert and Alice presented by one of her grand children. Next, artist-in-residence, Charlie Clough will explore the “fine” arts produced during the time of the Roycroft. Finally, Roycroft Campus Director of Programming, will be examining the interconnection between four architectural treasures in Western New York. In person talks are Wednesday evenings at 7:00pm in the Roycroft Power House. Virtual talks take place on Zoom, Saturday mornings at 11:00am EST.

FREE for Roycroft Campus Members. Members please call the Roycroft Campus to register for this program, or call to become a Member at 716-655-0261.

Individual presentations are available for $20 per person.

All proceeds go to support the educational programming and restoration of the Roycroft Campus.

The Roycroft History Course is made possible with funding from Erie County, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.

After years of scandal and front-page coverage in papers across the country, in January 1904, Elbert and Alice were finally free to marry and with 9-year-old Miriam, they moved to the Roycroft. This talk will focus on Miriam’s life in the years before, her youth at the Roycroft, and what happened when she was suddenly orphaned at age 20. Based on biographies of her parents, Roycroft and family photos, newspaper articles, letters, Miriam’s unpublished papers, and family stories, Elizabeth Garber, one of Miriam’s grandchildren, explores what Miriam’s life was like, in and out of the public spotlight.

The “fine” art produced between 1895 and 1938, the years of the Roycroft, may have been the most creative and diverse period of art ever: in Europe, Impressionism, Post-impressionism, Fauvism, Cubism, Orphism, Futurism, Suprematism, Dada, Surrealism; and in America, late Hudson River, Tonalism, The Ashcan School, Synchromism, Regionalists, Modernist Abstraction—all provide rich and fascinating material. Photography and printing greatly impacted how art functioned in terms of content and social reach. Illustration bloomed in the service of storytelling and constitutes a particular branch of art. The rise of museums in this period reflects the value of art as a thing-in-itself.

Mr. Clough will give us an overview of European and American painting and the Golden Age of Illustration during the period of the Roycroft. He will also address collecting, both experiences and art objects, the “layering of significance at the Roycroft” today, and the potential for a cultural eco-system at the Castiglia Art Center, underscoring the challenge, “that you can do it too.” This all culminates in Clough’s own exhibition, “Garden and Gates,” in the Castiglia Art Center, May 16—June 11, 2023, where he will debut his latest innovation of “interactive passive cinema.”

This presentation explores the complex relationship among four giants in American history that all intersect around the turn of the 19^th to 20^th century in Buffalo, New York. John Larkin, owner of one of the largest soap companies in the world, Elbert Hubbard, mastermind behind the Roycroft Campus, businessman Darwin D. Martin, and the world famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Their joint relationship would help create four architectural treasures; the Larkin Administration building, the Martin House, Graycliff, and the Roycroft Campus, which are once again beckoning people today.