Southern Appalachian Digital Collections

Western Carolina University (20) View all

Mae Gouge at Loom

  • wcu_craft_revival-5978.jpg
  • This photograph, taken around 1926-28 by Bayard Wootten, shows Mae Gouge (1911-1994) seated at a loom in the Weaving Cabin, near Penland, North Carolina. The cabin served as the center for the Penland Weavers and Potters, the community weaving cooperative organized by Lucy Morgan in 1923 under the auspices of the Appalachian School. From 1923 to 1938 the Appalachian School served as the umbrella institution under which the Penland Weavers and Potters were organized and the Penland School of Handicrafts (now Penland School of Crafts) was established. This photographic image of Mae Gouge was printed as a postcard and also rendered into a woodcut and used as the logo for Penland School of Handicrafts until 1961. The postcard can be seen by searching for identifier PSC_RG3_CR045. An example of a rendering of this photograph can be seen by searching for identifiers PSC_RG2_CR010. Gouge, a native of Mitchell County, married Ed Huskins in 1934 and the two of them, for many years, owned and operated the Circle Restaurant in Spruce Pine, North Carolina.