Humanitarian Handicraft
History, Materiality and Trade, c. 1840-1980
Published on 7. October 2025
Book
Hardback
304 pages
978-1-5261-8802-1 (ISBN)
Description
This book uncovers the overlooked history of artisanal textiles in projects aimed at social uplift and moral reform. The contributors ask what the implications of this form of gendered craft production are for our understanding of the humanitarian imagination, relations of humanitarian production and the generation of meaning and social and artistic value. It also opens a dialogue with contemporary socially-engaged textile artists to engender critical reflection on the socially-situated meaning of textile craft in past and present humanitarian contexts. -- .
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Manchester
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
45 Illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 161 mm
Thickness: 21 mm
Weight
622 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-5261-8802-1 (9781526188021)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Claire Barber is Senior Lecturer in Textiles at the University of Huddersfield
Helen Dampier is Reader in Social and Cultural History at Leeds Beckett University
Rebecca Gill is Reader in Modern History at the University of Huddersfield
Bertrand Taithe is Professor of History at the Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute, University of Manchester -- .
Helen Dampier is Reader in Social and Cultural History at Leeds Beckett University
Rebecca Gill is Reader in Modern History at the University of Huddersfield
Bertrand Taithe is Professor of History at the Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute, University of Manchester -- .
Content
Introduction: the meanings and making of humanitarian handicraft - Claire Barber, Helen Dampier, Rebecca Gill and Bertrand Taithe
1 Literary visions of craft and cooperation in the European handmade lace revival, c. 1840-1914 - David Hopkin
2 Work of hands: humanitarian craft and fair trade in Britain and Ireland, 1885-1914 - Janice Helland
3 Thinking Anglo-American industrial relief through Armenian needlework in the late 1890s: humanitarian marketing ethics, agency and identity - Stephanie Prevost
4 Emily Hobhouse and the Koppies Lace School, 1908-26 - Helen Dampier and Rebecca Gill
5 Beyond gratitude. Belgian women, humanitarian organisations and lace-aid programmes in the First World War - Wendy Wiertz
6 Threads of friendship: Quaker women, 'peasant handicrafts' and educational reconstruction in Russia and Poland, 1916-39 - Sian Roberts
7 Politics woven as missionary craft: the carpets of the White Fathers and Sisters from the 1920s - Bertrand Taithe
8 Caught in the net: cooperation of lacemakers in the Vologda region, 1880s-1930s - Elizaveta Berezina
9 Crafting Communist Paternalism: the voices of lacemakers in Koniakow, Poland, 1947-62 - Nicolette Makovicky
10 Humanitarian handicrafts as (dis)empowerment of women 'left behind'. A Swedish help to self-help project in the Northern Greek village Vlasti, 1963-88 - Maria Smaberg
11 Humanitarian handicrafts: in conversation - Catherine Bertola, Claire Barber, Helen Dampier, Rebecca Gill and June Hill
Afterword - Jessica Hemmings -- .
1 Literary visions of craft and cooperation in the European handmade lace revival, c. 1840-1914 - David Hopkin
2 Work of hands: humanitarian craft and fair trade in Britain and Ireland, 1885-1914 - Janice Helland
3 Thinking Anglo-American industrial relief through Armenian needlework in the late 1890s: humanitarian marketing ethics, agency and identity - Stephanie Prevost
4 Emily Hobhouse and the Koppies Lace School, 1908-26 - Helen Dampier and Rebecca Gill
5 Beyond gratitude. Belgian women, humanitarian organisations and lace-aid programmes in the First World War - Wendy Wiertz
6 Threads of friendship: Quaker women, 'peasant handicrafts' and educational reconstruction in Russia and Poland, 1916-39 - Sian Roberts
7 Politics woven as missionary craft: the carpets of the White Fathers and Sisters from the 1920s - Bertrand Taithe
8 Caught in the net: cooperation of lacemakers in the Vologda region, 1880s-1930s - Elizaveta Berezina
9 Crafting Communist Paternalism: the voices of lacemakers in Koniakow, Poland, 1947-62 - Nicolette Makovicky
10 Humanitarian handicrafts as (dis)empowerment of women 'left behind'. A Swedish help to self-help project in the Northern Greek village Vlasti, 1963-88 - Maria Smaberg
11 Humanitarian handicrafts: in conversation - Catherine Bertola, Claire Barber, Helen Dampier, Rebecca Gill and June Hill
Afterword - Jessica Hemmings -- .