What is Roycroft? It was a handicraft community founded in East Aurora, NY about 1895 by Elbert Hubbard. Hubbard had been a very
successful soap salesman for J. D. Larkin and Co. in Buffalo, but wasn't satisfied with his life. So in 1892,
he sold his interests in the company and briefly enrolled at Harvard. Disenchanted, he quickly dropped out and
set off on a walking tour of England. He briefly met William Morris and became enamored of Morris' Arts-and-Crafts Kelmscott Press.
Upon his return to America, he tried to find a publisher for a series of biographical sketches he had written called "Little Journeys."
When he was unsuccessful in his attempts to have someone else publish the works, he decided to print them himself. Thus the Roycroft
Press was born. Hubbard proved to be such a prolific and popular writer that fame and fortune soon followed. The print shop expanded and then
visitors began coming to East Aurora to see this extraordinary man. Initially, visitors were housed in the printworker's living quarters,
but this arrangement soon proved inadequate. A hotel was built to house the ever increasing number of visitors. The inn had to be furnished
so Hubbard had local craftsmen make a simple, straight lined style of furniture. The furniture became popular with visitors who wished to
buy pieces for their homes. A furniture manufacturing industry was then born. In addition, Roycroft craftspeople were skilled metalsmiths,
leathersmiths, and bookbinders.
The community flourished and was at its peak in 1910 with over 500 workers. By 1915, Hubbard and the Roycrofters (as the workers were
known) had achieved great success. Not only had Elbert written the inspirational pamphlet, A Message to Garcia, with an estimated printing
of 40 million copies, but he was also publishing monthly magazines, The Fra and The Philistine. This was all in addition to an almost
constant nationwide lecture series and the monthly publication of additions to the original Little Journeys series that started it all.
It all changed when Elbert and his wife, Alice, were among the fatalities onboard the Lusitania. The Hubbards had been traveling to
England to begin an lecture tour when they died. The Community's leadership then fell to Elbert's son, Bert. Though Bert took the
Roycrofters to wider sales distribution, changing American tastes led to slowly declining sales figures. Finally, in 1938 the
Roycrofters closed shop.
Today, items that were produced by the Roycrofters are highly sought after by collectors. In addition to the collectabilty of the items,
examples of Roycroft bookbinding, metalsmithing, and furniture-making are sought simply because of their inherent beauty and craftsmanship.