Your Cromaine Library may offer a variety of crafting books, programs, and resources, but the history of crafting in Hartland goes all the way back to the early 1930’s!
When J. Robert Crouse returned to his beloved hometown of Hartland, Michigan, having become very successful in the electrical field, he established a fund to serve the hard-working community, many of whom were farmers. He established night schools for farmers, the Library, the Music Hall, a trading mart, and a revival of crafts in the little village of Hartland. Crouse created a community handcraft program, called Cromaine Crafts, in 1933. He invited Osma Palmer Couch, a leading figure in the weaving industry in New York, to run the program. She instructed Hartland residents of all ages on the art of weaving and other crafts, for both enjoyment and a source of income. With Osma’s help, a weaving studio opened in the Old Mill in 1934, offering flour samples from the Mill along with handmade books, woven goods, baskets, and woodwork.
Community members enjoyed learning handweaving, along with pottery, basket making, book binding, metalworking, and leathercraft, but it was clear from the beginning that the main focus remained on the lovely art of handweaving. Having difficulty obtaining looms for weaving, Hartland residents built their own. Woodworker Milo Gallinger joined Cromaine Crafts to contribute his skills to the making of looms. His woodworking skills, along with Osma’s wonderful weaving skills, made for a fantastic shop; in fact, their teamwork grew into a relationship, and Milo and Osma married, moving to a farm on Hibner Road. Products such as towels, dresses, curtains, handkerchiefs, neckties, and bedspreads were created by the skilled weavers of Hartland. Many women in Hartland wore beautiful articles of clothing that they had designed and woven themselves! The slogan adopted for all works created by Hartland Crafts was “Things Useful and Beautiful.”
By the late 1930’s, Hartland craft-shop goods were sold in more than three hundred stores nationwide, including Macy’s, Hudson’s, and Lord & Taylor in New York and Los Angeles. Even London sold products made by Hartland weavers! New York’s Museum of Science and Industry even hosted a Cromaine Crafts exhibit featuring handmade looms and textile art, during which two ten-year-old girls demonstrated making silk stockings into thread for weaving!
The high-quality Hartland hand looms, made at first for local usage, sold internationally as well. Milo Gallinger even invented a repeater loom in 1938, which allowed for multiple people to work on the same loom. As space was often an issue when teaching weaving classes in schools, the repeater loom gained much popularity and appreciation from the community.
Students traveled from several states to receive education at the Hartland Craft Shop, and weaving classes were carried out at Waldenwoods for several years. Even radio programs featured information from Cromaine Crafts, and many other craft enterprises developed from this once small gathering of weavers.
In May of 1935, Mrs. Martina Lindahl, an experienced Swedish weaver, came to Cromaine Crafts. The youngest of five children, Martina spent fourteen and a half years as a student in Sweden learning craft work such as weaving, spinning, knitting, crocheting, woodwork, carving, and other art before coming to the US in 1903. Martina was well-known for using a tremendous variety of materials in her handweaving, from wool to plant fibers, dog hair, buffalo hair, and even her own hair in some of her pieces, as well as hair from horses, camels, cats, and even silver foxes! She crafted an impressive number of pieces, including wall hangings, tablecloths, cushions, bedspreads, upholstery materials, placemats, dress material, and more. Martina was a creative weaver with amazing skill, and she took over responsibility of Cromaine Crafts in 1939, which had been renamed to Hartland Area Crafts, while Osma Gallinger opened a new crafting shop in Howell as an extension of Hartland Area Crafts.
As Osma worked in the Howell shop and Martina in Hartland, Mr. Crouse worked with both women to form the first National Weaving Institute, held at Waldenwoods in June of 1938. This meeting allowed for crafting teachers and students to work in a beautiful, peaceful setting, sharing information and working on projects to promote better weaving practices. There were speakers, discussions, and classes dedicated to handweaving, with cozy fireside chats in the evenings. It was a successful program and a fantastic learning opportunity for weavers from all over the country!
After this, the Gallingers expanded into Gallinger Looms, Gallinger Crafts, with Milo Gallinger as the general manager and president, and Osma was the director and president of Creative Crafts in Howell. Martina Lindahl managed Hartland Area Crafts in Hartland, and there was also a Fine Art Studio and the Hartland Area Craft Museum.
The weaving community in Hartland felt the tremendous loss of Mr. Crouse’s death in 1946, and though the weavers continued their beautiful work, subtle changes in following years affected the composition of Hartland Area Crafts. In July of 1959, the dream of many Michigan weavers came true with the formation of a statewide weaving organization. The Michigan League of Handweavers held their first conference at Waldenwoods, the same location as Mr. Crouse’s National Weaving Institute almost two decades prior. The conference drew enthusiastic weavers to Michigan from all over the country, and even hosted a few attendees who had been present at the first National Weaving Institute!
As years passed, the original founders of Cromaine Crafts retired or moved away, and community interest in weaving waned. Though we do not see much evidence of handweaving in Hartland nowadays, the weaving industry has left a tremendous impact on our community, and is a piece of our history that we can be very proud of! Annora P. Gardner wrote for Michigan Challenge in 1964 that “Handweaving is a fascinating craft and the men and women who weave are warm, generous, creative people, always eager to share the dynamics of their craft.”
A song was even written in dedication to Cromaine Crafts by Dr. Dora H. Stockman, “in the hope that it may contribute in a small way to the useful, beautiful, joyous craft of weaving,” in June of 1938. Titled A Weaving Song, the piece features lyrics such as “dreams of the weavers, creative each day; beauty is born in the rhythmical sway…. paradise patterns on earth’s singing looms; sunshine and showers they wondrously blend; woven like life’s rainbow, gold to the end.”
Although much has changed in the village of Hartland since the weaving boom almost one hundred years ago, the small-town feel and the creativity, innovation, and hard-working nature of our community has not. Today, the Black Sheep Weavers Guild of Hartland meets regularly to work on a variety of textile arts. They also host a twice-yearly sale, featuring their beautiful handmade work. Learn more about the Black Sheep Weavers here!
A new program series is also coming to the Library this year, and is a perfect fit for local crafters of every kind! Join us every other Monday for Arts and Chats, beginning on January 8 @ 6:00 pm. In this program, we invite crafters and creatives to connect with fellow artists to work on projects and chat, with a featured craft on the first session of the month. Learn more and register here!
Whatever your craft of choice, you’re sure to find a sense of belonging in the Hartland area, home of the third-largest handweaving industry in the United States of the 1930’s and 40’s! Learn more about Hartland happenings and how to get involved in your community through your library at www.cromaine.org. We hope to see you soon for a crafting program, an educational lecture, or to find a variety of DIY books, magazines, and online resources!
Happy crafting, Hartland!