Among The Wolfsonian’s specialties is the largest public collection of British Aesthetic movement and Arts and Crafts movement (1870–1910) objects outside the United Kingdom. Designers rejected what they considered to be anonymous and poorly made industrial production. Instead, they advocated handcrafted objects with designs inspired by the Orient or in response to vernacular traditions. British Arts and Crafts reformers believed that the industrial process had stripped craftspeople of their individuality, and they vowed to change society by changing the nature of work; the craftsperson could again control the design process and make objects by hand. Among The Wolfsonian’s pieces are important examples by William Morris, Christopher Dresser, C.R. Ashbee, M.H. Baillie Scott, Ernest Gimson, and Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Back to Collections Main