REEL 4515: Printed material, mostly written and illustrated by Howard C. ("Toni") and Bonnie Willis Ford, and Lucy Morgan, Penland's first director. Included are a history and a description of the school; a copy of the Penland song, 1955; an announcement of the 1940 sessions; an announcement about Penland's 10th anniversay; instruction sheets and 5 booklets, 1943, by Toni Ford concerning spinning, weaving, blockprinting, bonecraft, and the construction of a loom, flower holders, and hurricane lamps; three issues of Mountain MIlestones, 1945-1949; 2 clippings, and 2 photographs.
REEL 4973: Additional materials regarding The Penland School of Crafts, includes: a declaration and donations from the citizens of the town Penland toward the construction of the Edward F. Worst Craft House, ca. 1935, and other letters, ca. 1935-1988; notes, typescripts, a scrapbook, and maps on the history of the school; school course brochures, ca. 1929-1994, including 2 early brochures by Lucy Morgan describing The Appalachian School, Department of Fireside Industries, later to become The Penland School of Crafts; programs and announcements of school events, including the log raising of the Edward F. Worst Craft House, 1935, and "An Order of Service for Craftsmen"; 6 issues of Mountain Milestones, 1949-1961; clippings, 1941-1995; and photographs, ca. 1935-1974, including 19 of Morgan and Morgan with others, and ca. 450 of students, staff, crafts, and environs, several taken by Bayard Wooten. Also included are weaving samples and patterns, some published by the Lily Mills Company for The Penland School of Crafts, ca. 1954 and undated.
Biographical / Historical:
Howard C. "Toni" Ford was an instructor and publicity director of The Penland School of Crafts. His wife, Bonnie Willis Ford, was an administrator for the school.
Provenance:
Lent for microfilming in 1991 and 1995 by William H. Ford, son of Howard C. and Bonnie Willis Ford.
Restrictions:
The Archives of American art does not own the original papers. Use is limited to the microfilm copy.
An interview of Cynthia Bringle conducted 1992 January 22, by Liza Kirwin, for the Archives of American Art.
Bringle discusses her childhood and education in Memphis, Tennessee; her admiration for Memphis artist Dorothy Sturm; meeting Francis Merritt, the director of the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, and his assistant William (Bill) Brown; attending Haystack in Liberty, Maine in 1960 as a scholarship student; her graduate studies in ceramics at Alfred University; attending a Shoji Hamada workshop in Seattle in 1963; building the first gas kiln at the Penland School of Crafts in Penland, North Carolina; teaching at Penland; establishing a pottery studio in Tennessee; Brown's management style as the director of Penland from 1962 to 1983, and conflicts with the Board of Trustees that led to his resignation; Verne Stanford's tenure as director of Penland from 1984 to 1989; Hunter Kariher's role as the director of Penland after Stanford's resignation; and Penland in comparison with other craft schools including Haystack, Arrowmont, and Anderson Ranch. She recalls Lucy Morgan (the founder of Penland), Bonnie Ford (Penland administrator), Jane Brown, Joy Stanford, Harvey Littleton, and others.
Biographical / Historical:
Cynthia Bringle (1939- ) is a potter, in Penland, N.C.
General:
Originally recorded on 2 sound tape cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 3 digital wav files. Duration is 2 hr., 20 min.
Provenance:
This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics, and administrators.
Restrictions:
Transcript available on the Archives of American Art website.
