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WCU - Craft Revival

Frances Elizabeth Parker Nicholson

  • wcu_craft_revival-1904.jpg
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  • This photograph of Frances Elizabeth Parker Nicholson (1897-1990) in the 1940s or 1950s shows her with a selection of her cornhusk crafts. As a self-taught craftsperson, Nicholson began experimenting with cornhusk crafts in the 1930s. She devised her own method of working with the raw materials producing hats, bags, dolls, slippers, flowers, and other assorted items. In the 1940s, she taught her weaving methods to groups of young women throughout western North Carolina under the National Youth Administration program. Her teaching and leadership abilities eventually earned her two state awards from the North Carolina Extension Service. In the 1980s she participated in a special show at the Southern Highland Handicraft Guild's Folk Art Center where several of her items were featured. A native and life-long resident of Jackson County, to her many admirers she was known as the "Corn Shuck Queen" of North Carolina.

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Craft Revival

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, mountain craftsmen formed the cornerstone of a revived interest in things handmade to create a movement known as the Craft Revival. During the Revival...

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wcu_craft_revival-1904.jpg