Oral history interview with Margret Craver Withers
odd: label: General
content: Originally recorded on 5 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 10 digital wav files. Duration is 6 hr., 58 min.
name: label: Interviewee
content: Withers, Margret Craver, 1907-
label: Interviewer
content: Brown, Robert F.
label: Names
content: Handy & Harman (Firm)
label: Names
content: Fleming, Erik, Baron
label: Names
content: Heinrich, Leonard
label: Names
content: Kirk, Arthur Neville
label: Names
content: Stone, Arthur J., 1847-1938
label: Names
content: Weir, Wilson
label: Names
content: Withers, Charles C.
topic: label: Topic
content: Silversmiths -- Interviews
label: Topic
content: Jewelers -- Interviews
label: Topic
content: Metal-workers -- Interviews
label: Topic
content: Silverwork
label: Topic
content: Enamel and enameling
label: Topic
content: Women artists
label: Topic
content: Decorative arts
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators.
creator: label: Interviewee
content: Withers, Margret Craver, 1907-
label: Interviewer
content: Brown, Robert F.
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Margret Craver Withers (1907-2010) was a silversmith in Boston, Massachusetts.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 5 Sound cassettes
label: Extent
content: 35 Color slides
label: Extent
content: 115 Pages (Transcript (1983-1984))
label: Extent
content: 12 Pages (Transcript (1985))
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1983-1985
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.wither83
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Sound cassettes
label: Type
content: Color slides
label: Type
content: Pages
label: Type
content: Sound recordings
label: Type
content: Interviews
altformavail: label: Existence and Location of Copies
content: Transcript is available on the Archives of American Art's website.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Sound recordings
label: Genre/Form
content: Interviews
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: An interview with Margret Craver Withers conducted 1983-1985, by Robert F. Brown, for the Archives of American Art.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Withers discusses her childhood in Kansas; early education; and aptitude for drawing.Education in art and design, including studying crafts at the University of Kansas, 1925-29; her position as a grade school teacher in Kansas and as a crafts instructor at Wichita Art Association, 1930s; study with various master metalworkers, including Arthur Nevill Kirk, Arthur J. Stone, Leonard Heinrich and Wilson Weir in the USA, and Baron Erik Fleming in Sweden.Development of Hospital Service Program, with the support of Handy and Harman, precious metal refiners, during World War II, to train army therapists in metalworking for soldiers with disabilities; supervision in post-War period of Handy and Harman's Craft Service Department, producing films on hand-wrought silver, a traveling exhibition of outstanding contemporary silver, instructional brochures, and a series of workshops for American silversmiths, taught by European masters.Marriage in 1950 to Charles Withers, president of Towle Silver, and that company's policy of employing top designers; Towle's commissioning of works in silver from top modern sculptors; her making of silver holloware and jewelry for private clients; her re-invention of the en resille process for enameling (1959) and in the early 1980s her invention of a process for combining enamel, glass, and silver and gold leaf in jewelry; and her involvement in crafts organizations.She discusses her en resille enameling technique. [The 1985 session is transcribed, and is accompanied by slides of the work discussed].