Webb, Aileen Osborn, 1892-1979

Aileen Osborn Webb (1892–1979) was an American patron of crafts.[3][4][5] She was a founder of the organization now known as the American Craft Council, which gives an annual award named for her.[6] She was considered a "principal supporter" of the American Craft movement during the Great Depression.[1] She founded the School for American Craftsmen (SAC), which is now part of Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT).[2] Aileen Osborn was born on June 25, 1892 in Garrison, New York to William Church Osborn, an art collector who later donated his art pieces to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and active member of the Democratic Party, and Alice Clinton Hoadley Dodge, a philanthropist, social reformer and daughter of William E. Dodge Jr.[1][3][4][5] Her brother was Frederick Osborn. She was educated at Miss Chapin's School in New York City[7] and then in Paris, where she learned to speak French.[3]

At the age of 20, Aileen married Vanderbilt Webb, son of Eliza Osgood Vanderbilt Webb, grandson of William Henry Vanderbilt and great-grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt.[3][4][8] The couple got married on September 10, 1912, in Garrison.[9] They had three boys and one girl: Derrick, William, Richard, and Barbara.[10] Born into an American family of philanthropists who were known as victorious manufactures, financiers and scientists, Aileen Osborn Webb was the best craft supporter of the 20th century. She was raised in a Garrison, New York and Manhattan where she was surrounded by people who supported giving back to the communities that helped make them so successful.[10]

In the 1920s, Aileen was Vice Chairman of the Democratic Party. She also participated with the Junior League, which was co-founded by her sister-in-law Frederica Vanderbilt Webb, along with Mary Harriman and Dorothy Whitney in 1907.[3][5]

During the Great Depression, she encouraged the poor to sell handmade goods to improve their financial situations.[4] She founded America House in New York in 1940.[3] In 1941, she helped start Craft Horizons magazine.[3] In 1943, she founded the American Craft Council.[3][4][5] In 1944, she founded the School of the American Craftsman (SAC), now part of the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York.[4][2] In 1956, she founded the Museum of Contemporary Crafts, now known as the Museum of Arts and Design, the first museum to exhibit craft art by living artists.[4] In 1964, she created the World Crafts Council to support indigenous craftspeople around the world.[4] During the Great Depression, she began a crafts group named Putnam County Products in her hometown of Peekskill, New York, which was created to assist local craftsmen sell their products. When Aileen noticed that there was a need for an organization that would help the craft members find broader markets to help them sell the products, she created the Handcraft Cooperative League of America in 1940 In the 1950s, she bought a penthouse residence that combined two apartments designed by David Campbell on East 72nd Street in Manhattan.[3] Her living-room included a painting by Claude Monet and her front entrance weavings by Lenore Tawney.[3] She also owned a painting by Paul Gauguin.[3] Her penthouse included a studio, where she handcrafted, wood carved, painted and wrote poetry.[3]

She spent her weekends in her hometown house in Garrison, which included a table by Wendell Castle. She summered in her husband's family home, Shelburne Farms in Shelburne, Vermont, where she had a "glass house" built on Lake Champlain.[3] This house was furnished with modern furniture, and a large mural by Glen Michaels.[10] Webb died on August 15, 1979, at the age of 87, in her home in Garrison, New York.[2]