A Governors Wife at Work
From Your Home Magazine September 1929
…..”Look here,” he said suddenly, “I’m
tired of hearing you talk about building your cottage and
establishing your industries. Why not have some action? I’ll
start the ball rolling myself. Would you really like to build
your cottage here, on this very spot?”
The four women assured him that they had meant every word they
had said.
“Very good,” said Mr. Roosevelt. …….
Mr. Roosevelt listened to their disappointment as bid after
bid for the contracting was at least five thousand dollars
more than they had planned to spend. Once more he came to
their rescue.
“I’ll build your house for five thousand dollars less than
your lowest bid,” he told them one night.
“What do you mean?” they asked incredulous.
“I’ll undertake the contract for building the cottage,” he
explained, “just as any contractor would undertake it. I’ll
hire the workmen, buy the materials and see that the house is
finished in time.”
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Five thousand dollars saved seemed too good to be true, so the
four women made it very clear to their new contractor that
every detail of the plans and specifications should be carried
out.
Before the cottage was finished, they had decided on the
industry which they would bring back to life. They would make
furniture in the same way that the famous old cabinet makers
had made it.
Construction was hurried on the shop at the back of the
cottage, and the search for workmen who would work for the joy
of craftsmanship, rather than for the speed of production, was
started.
That this venture into reproduction of old furniture is no
idle fancy, to be dropped when there is something more
interesting and less exciting at hand, is shown by the fact
that it has steadily grown in the three years since it was
opened---three years which have seen all four women deeply
interested in a presidential campaign and in a campaign which
put Mr. Roosevelt into the Executive Mansion in Albany. Mrs.
Roosevelt is still actively interested in the shop, even
though she is the first lady of the state, and is teaching in
a school in New York City besides.
It was at this school, during a period when she did not happen
to be teaching, that Mrs. Roosevelt told me about the shop at
Val-Kill. Her office was a tiny cube, just big enough to hold
her desk and that of her secretary’s, and an extra chair for
visitors, not the trappings which one would expect to find
surrounding the wife of the governor of New York. But Mrs.
Roosevelt belongs to the newer generation of women, who are
workers in their own right, in addition to performing those
duties of hostess which are inseparable with public life.
It was the size of the Mayflower which had a great deal to do
with the selection of furniture reproduction as the industry
at the Val-Kill cottage.
“I had always been interested in starting some American
industry or other,” Mrs. Roosevelt explained, “which would
employ the men and women of the countryside and would bring
back the old tradition of workmanship of a hundred years ago,
and the reproduction of old furniture seemed the logical place
for us to begin.
“of course, reproductions, no matter how well done they are,
can never take the place of real antiques, of the cherished
pieces of furniture which have been handed down in a family
from generation to generation, and which have become a very
integral part of the life of that family. But unfortunately,
the Mayflower was a very small boat, and as much as we all
might wish to furnish our houses with its cargo, very few of
us are fortunate enough to own chairs or tables which came
with the Pilgrim Fathers.
“There are other sources of old furniture, of course, besides
the Mayflower, but these are limited, and as the years go on,
they will become more and more limited. Already the old barns
and attics have yielded up most of their treasures, and it is
becoming increasingly difficult to find antiques that are
genuine and beautiful.
“A great many of the loveliest old pieces are in the museums,
anyway, and will never be available for everyday use. Then,
many of the old pieces were designed for living conditions
which no longer exist. We do not have the space to put many a
beautiful old sideboard or a massive table which was planned
for use in days when houses were large and square feet were
not at a premium.
“Yet the tradition of beauty which old American furniture
tells is one which should be passed on to future generations
of Americans. Children should grow up in an atmosphere of the
very best which has been developed in America, and should be
so surrounded by what is beautiful and sound construction that
without realizing it they will develop an impeccable taste and
discrimination.
“If there were enough antiques to supply the demand for them,
the problem would be solved, but there are pitifully few
remnants of the days of our best American craftsmen in
proportion to the number of houses and apartments which folks
like to have filled with them. Obviously, the next best thing
is to try to reproduce the work of the early cabinet makers,
and to carry on not only their designs but their thoroughness
of construction and their joy in turning out individual works
of art.
“Our shop at Val-Kill is trying to do its part of this handing
down of a fine old tradition in cabinetmaking.”
Mrs. Roosevelt told of how difficult it was at first to
instill into their minds of the workmen that what was expected
of them was craftsmanship, not speed.
“Even though we selected our workmen for their artistic
leanings as well as their technical ability,” she explained,
“they could not understand, at first, that we did not want the
furniture slapped together any old way in order to get it
finished. They were so used to rushing through with a job,
using the methods of joining and finishing which would give
quick though not always lasting results, that it seemed
incredible that anything else could be asked of them in this
age of factory production.
“But once they realized that what we wanted was the very best
cabinet making of which they were capable, they swung into the
spirit if the undertaking, and now they take a genuine pride
in turning out a beautiful piece of work.”
In the three years since the starting of the Val-Kill shop the
number of workmen has increased from one to eight, and at the
present time that number is being doubled. But each one is
picked with great care to be sure that he is possessed of the
right qualities of craftsmanship.
“Eventually we plan to have a school for craftsmen at
Val-Kill,” Mrs. Roosevelt explained, where the young boys and
girls of the neighborhood can learn cabinetmaking or weaving,
and where they can find employment, rather than have to go to
the city to work.”
There is no limit to the possibilities for design.
“Most of our copies are made from museum pieces,” Mrs.
Roosevelt continued, “many from the Metropolitan Museum in New
York. Charles Cornelius has helped us a great deal in
selecting the furniture to reproduce, and is giving us access
to it so that our plans could be drawn up. Morris Schwartz has
also been of inestimable assistance to us.
“Whenever anyone wants anything of her own copied, we are
always glad to do it, for it usually means that another design
is added to our repertory.”
When I asked Mrs. Roosevelt if any of her own family furniture
has been used as models, she shook her head and smiled.
“Unfortunately,” she said, “a great part of the Roosevelt
furniture belongs to the period of the Civil Was, which is not
particularly inspiring. Mr. Roosevelt’s mother, however, has
some Queen Anne chairs which we are planning to copy some
time.”
Much of the work up to date has been done in maple, walnut,
oak, and pine.
“We try to follow as closely as possible the original woods
which were used in a particular period. When our designs are
those which were first made in oak, or in maple, our
reproductions are in these same woods, although a customer
could order them in any other wood.
“The wood itself? Most of it is furnished by a lumber company
which selects wood of beautiful grain, thoroughly seasoned. So
far, we have not used much old wood, because we want this
furniture of ours to be the heirlooms of the future, and to
last as the old American and English furniture is lasting.
“If a customer specifies old wood, or any type of wood, we try
our best to supply it. One woman asked us to make her a set of
furniture out of the wood from some of the trees on her
estate. They will have to be cut down, sawed into boards, and
then aged for the proper amount of time before we can use
them, but to her this furniture will have an unusual
sentimental value.”
Mrs. Roosevelt has found many pieces of furniture can be
adapted for modern production. Flat-topped desks and filing
cabinets are necessities of modern furniture, but few of them
have been designed with an eye to beauty.
Sometimes the adaptation takes the form of a change in the
size of the furniture. Beds are lower, and twin beds are
designed from old full-sized models.
Tables are made smaller, so that they will be the right size
for modern apartments, desks and chests of drawers are fitted
with equipment suitable for modern needs.
“Nests of little tea tables are another adaptation which we
have made of old designs. Another modernization is a drop-leaf
table which is so narrow when folded that it can be slipped
back of a door, waiting for the emergency for which it was
planned.”
This adaption of old designs and old workmanship to the needs
of a more cramped world, Mrs. Roosevelt feels, is one of the
chief reasons for a project such as hers; that and the desire
to perpetuate the craftsmanship itself. Divans with modern
soft, luxurious cushions can have the restrained beauty of a
hard chimney seat of more austere times. Filing cabinets, they
prove, can become things of beauty, and chairs and tables can
be of the right size for modern needs.
But why reproduce old furniture? Why not put the same
craftsmanship into modernistic chairs and tables?
Mrs. Roosevelt answered this.
“We might have made modernistic furniture,” she said, “but we
did not feel that it had the livableness of the old designs.
Some of the modern pieces are really very beautiful, and the
fabrics are exquisite, but to me they do not have the feeling
or comfort and hospitality which the old furniture has. Modern
furniture, so far, seems to lack the inevitable rightness of
the time-tested favorites which have been used for generation
after generation, through changing conditions, and appreciated
by each.”
The stone cottage at Val-Kill is furnished with the products
of the shop behind it, and besides being a haven for the four
women in the summer, it is the demonstration house for the
furniture itself.
Plans for the future of Val-Kill include other industries.
“We have already had a little start in weaving.” Mrs.
Roosevelt explained. “We have a weaving teacher who has
classes for the girls in the neighborhood, and we have started
a little hooked rug making. Gradually we want to expand this
into as important a department as that of the furniture, for
there are as many originalities in the old American weaving
and the old American rug making as there are in the old
American furniture> Wrought iron work and silver work also
come into our plans for the future. We hope to make Val-Kill
the center for a revival of all of the old industries which
were carried out in its very hills.”
Mrs. Roosevelt and her associates are afraid that, without
some such project as theirs, the knowledge of the old colonial
crafts will be smothered in the rush for mass production.
“Workers are being trained now to get quick results, rather
than beautiful ones. Take the matter of joints in furniture,
for instance. Most modern furniture is put together with glue
and dowels, instead of with the time tried mortise and tenon
joints.
“It takes longer to make a mortise and tenon joint, but it
also takes longer to break one. Changes in temperature and
humidity do not have the same effect upon them as they have
upon glue, which is the main reason why there are still as
many antiques in existence as there are. Had they been made
under the ordinary modern factory conditions they would long
ago have fallen apart, instead of being sturdy and seemingly
imperishable.
“Of course, we are hoping that our furniture will be heirlooms
of the future, and will play an important part in relaying to
generations to come the restraint and beauty and livableness
of the designs of the old cabinet makers.
“Where we feel that modern methods will mean an improvement,
we use them. Although our workmen have come to scorn the
machine-like precision of paint spraying, the finishes which
we use are the outcome of modern scientific research. We have
our laboratory in which we experiment with various stains.
Then after we have found just which stain enhances the beauty
of the wood without obscuring the grain, the wood is treated
and rubbed, and treated again until it has a beautiful, soft
luster undreamed of even by some of the old craftsmen.
“We try to put back into into the wood the acids which are
already a part of the wood and which give it its
characteristic coloring. With maple we use permanganate of
potash, because it is this chemical which imparts to maple
that peculiar golden brown which is a great part of its charm.
By adding this same chemical we deepen the natural beauty of
the wood, and bring out even more clearly the pattern of the
grain.”
It is rather pertinent that the project which has so much
occupied the time and energy of these four modern women should
have been concerned with home making. Although the wife of the
governor of the largest and busiest state in the Union has
chosen to divide her time between her business activities and
her official duties , she has gone in for two occupations
which have been woman’s from time immemorial, those of
teaching and home building.
She is an experiment of the new tradition, but she does not
throw away the old traditions of hospitality and home making.
Rather she adapts them to modern life and modern conditions,
just as the workmen at her Val-Kill shop have adapted the old
designs of furniture to modern apartment life.
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