House and Garden 
This New Clairvaux Arts and Crafts is a 
settlement and training school, founded at 
Montague, Mass., by the Rev. Edward P. 
Pressey. It is a family school of boys and 
girls, from five to twenty years of age, where 
a training is given in farming, housework, 
printing, wood-working and other crafts. 
Exhibitions of their work, consisting of 
raffia beach pillows, rugs of different colors, 
baskets, leather work, knitted articles, have 
been held from time to time, in and near 
Boston. The Society derives its name from 
the mediaeval Abbey of Clairvaux founded 
by St. Bernard, from which sprang some four 
hundred other religious colonies, and which 
was thus one of the most fertile sources of the 
industrial and intellectual revival in Europe. 
Mr. Pressey originally started this work at 
Rowe, Mass., by an attempt to repeople the 
abandoned farms in that neighborhood. 
An exhibit of the Deerfield Society, Martha 
Washington Rug Weavers, and the Oriental 
Rug Weavers, consisted of table covers, por¬ 
tieres and pillows, and rugs of many colors. 
The designs on some of these were quite 
intricate and added greatly to the decorative 
qualities of the weaving. Miss Marie Little’s 
copper table covers were also charming, with 
their rough surfaces 
and their strong, rich 
coloring obtained by 
dyeing with vegetable 
dyes. 
One of the most en¬ 
couraging features of 
the exhibition was 
the number of Craft 
Societies represented, 
each of which had sent 
in specimens of many 
of their industries. 
The Deerfield Socie¬ 
ty sent exhibits of most 
beautiful embroideries 
of blue and white 
needlework, as well as 
other interesting ar¬ 
ticles of hand-craft. 
This Society was a 
pioneer in starting 
village industries and 
dates from 1896. It 
was organized by Miss 
Margaret Whiting and Miss Ellen Miller 
for the purpose of reviving the New England 
embroidery of the eighteenth century. The 
making of raffia baskets was later introduced 
into Deerfield by Mrs. Madeline Wynne, of 
Chicago. There is usually a brisk sale of 
the needlework, baskets, rugs, and photo¬ 
graphs of the society at Arts and Crafts 
exhibitions throughout the country, as well 
as at the annual summer sale at Deerfield. 
Some beautiful pieces of fine Acadian 
weaving were on exhibition; notably a por¬ 
tiere of wide stripes in softest colorings, 
called an Evangeline portiere, which re¬ 
minded one of the work done by the Women’s 
Art Association of Montreal. These ladies 
do all in their power to promote and encourage 
handicrafts in the French and Scotch dis¬ 
tricts, and also to help the Indians to keep 
up the quality of their work by encouraging 
them in the use of vegetable dyes. 1 he 
Association provides trained supervisors to 
see that the work is begun and carried on 
on true arts and crafts lines. 
An industry on very similar lines is carried 
on through the efforts of Mrs. Sara Avery 
Leeds, in the Attakapas region of Southern 
Louisiana, about midway between New 
A PULLED RUG AND WOVEN COVERLETS 
2 35 
