In 1938,
Bessie Swain gathered together approximately 12 interested weavers and formed
the New Hampshire Weavers. As the group's first chairman, treasurer, secretary,
and teacher, Bessie Swain was the inspiration, energy, and focus behind the
newly formed organization. She served as chairman several times during the early
days of the Guild's history.
Formed as an offshoot of the newly organized
League of New Hampshire Arts and Crafts, the Guild and the League shared some
common goals. Founded after the depression to assist poverty stricken rural
people, and especially craftspeople, the League of New Hampshire Arts and Crafts
was sponsored by the State Commission of Arts and Crafts in 1932. With the goal
of aiding New Hampshire citizens to return to the old ways of doing things and
earn a living doing so, the League offered funding and structure, teachers and
market opportunities to those interested in earning their living through the
arts and crafts.
The League's first weaving teacher, Robert Heartz,
traveled the state from barn loom to barn loom. He encouraged Bessie Swain, a
student of Heartz's from earlier in his career, to form the New Hampshire
Weavers to assist struggling weavers and to offer instruction for those who
wanted to learn.
Bessie wrote the first By-laws for the New Hampshire
Weavers, separating the organization and the League, establishing the Guild as a
separate entity although the two organizations worked well in tandem to help New
Hampshire weavers and other craftspeople. Many members of the New Hampshire
Weavers were also members of the League, and could attend League sponsored
classes, vote at League meetings, and serve on League boards and committees. To
qualify for League membership, weavers had to reside in New Hampshire. Because
most of the weavers attended the Sunapee Fair, the main meeting of the nascent
organization followed the event, offering the major lecture at a time when the
greatest number of members could participate.
NH Weavers also met
monthly at each other's homes. Weavers from all over the state paid guild
expenses by donation, mostly for postage and mailing, each member giving what
they could afford. The Guild prospered and in 1940, 2 years after its
inception, they were 88 members strong. Too large to meet in homes, they began
to meet in churches and town halls, still moving about the state to allow all
members to attend.
From the initial dozen weavers meeting in each
other's homes, through the 80 - 90 members meeting in Church vestries and halls,
to today's approximately 200 members meeting at the Kimball Jenkins Estate in
Concord, the New Hampshire Weavers Guild has grown and changed. Most of today's
weavers no longer earn their income through weaving, but the same spirit of
inquiry, the same interest in and appreciation for textiles, the same desire to
express themselves through their craft is as strong in today's members as it was
in the early days of the Guilds inception.