Fall 2026 Virtual Lecture Series: Anti-domestic: An Alternative Architectural History of Gustav Stickley

Although Gustav Stickley is most remembered for furniture and furnishings, a central principle of his design philosophy was the creation of harmonious residential environments at the scale of the home itself. He espoused these ideals in his magazine The Craftsman, through his “Home Builders Club,” as well as his Craftsman book, disseminating the ideology and design drawings of a progressive home-life built on simple, flexible, and environmentally integrated domesticity. Through these, Stickley became synonymous with the single-family home. Yet Stickley’s career and personal life were much more mobile and urban than this narrative would suggest, and the man himself held relationships with many building types ranging from the utilitarian to the ultra-modern. Even his famous Log House in Morris Plains was not intended to be a house but a camp lodge—a rural yet communal gathering place.

As part of the Stickley Museum’s Fall 2026 education programming, this 6-part series will consider the broader architectural history of Gustav Stickley, exploring the diverse spaces and places that facilitated his entrepreneurship. We will examine and hypothesize about how Stickley existed in, reacted to, and shaped buildings ranging from the furniture shop at Auburn State Prison to his factory in Syracuse and his tall building in Manhattan, down to the very infrastructure—train networks, lumberyards, and beyond—that enabled the Craftsman vision. In telling this alternative architectural history, we can better understand the man, positioning him less exclusively as a visionary Arts and Crafts crusader and more as a businessman and property owner navigating the complex and contradictory terrain of Progressive-era America.

Audiences can register for singular lectures or for all six using the attached link:

https://www.stickleymuseum.org/fall-2026-lecture-series/

Week One
Convict-Laborer-Craftsman: Stickley’s Prison Problem
10.10.26 @ 1 – 2 p.m. EDT via Zoom

Week Two
Factory Made: The Industrial Spaces of Gustav Stickley
10.17.26 @ 1 – 2 p.m. EDT via Zoom

Week Three
The Tall Office Building Craftily Considered:
Stickley’s Property in Manhattan
10.24.26 @ 1 – 2 p.m. EDT via Zoom

Week Four
The “Lodge” House: Rustic Visions in Suburban New Jersey
11.7.26 @ 1 – 2 p.m. EST via Zoom

Week Five
The Interlinked Land: Trains and Transit
11.14.26 @ 1 – 2 p.m. EST via Zoom

Week Six
The Craftsman House Migrates: Workaday Builders, Plan Book Makers, and the Craftsman Legacy
11.21.26 @ 1 – 2 p.m. EST via Zoom