A New Woman – Clara Barck Welles, Inspiration and Influence in Arts & Crafts Silver by jsmauo

University of Oregon

Left: Clara standing by the Kalo Shop window in 1937. The shop operated at 222 S. Michigan Avenue, Chicago, from 1936 through 1970. Sharon S. Darling Collection, gift of Robert R. Bower

Table of Contents

Foreword and Acknowledgments

John S. Weber, Executive Director

Clara B. Welles: A New Woman for a New Century Sharon S. Darling

The Kalo Shop: Hand Wrought Metalwork and Jewelry Darcy L. Evon

A Note on Hallmarks

Color Plates

Credits

Right: The Kalo Shop. American, Silver necklace with blister pearls surrounded by floral and leaf decoration silver, blister pearls. Pendant overall: 4 1/2 x 3 inches; chain: 15 1/2 inches Courtesy of John P. Walcher

Foreword and Acknowledgements

This publication documents the first museum exhibition focusing solely on the artistic work, career, widespread influence, and feminist social activism of Clara Barck Welles (American, 1869–1965), one of the nation’s most noteworthy early 20th century artisans and entrepreneurs. The exhibition and book showcase works in the collections of the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art and the Portland Art Museum, together with rarely exhibited pieces from select private collections. Welles’s fascinating life and career—including youth on a farm outside Oregon City—are outlined here, with contributions by Arts & Crafts scholars Sharon S. Darling and Darcy L. Evon.

jewelry. Throughout the half-century of Welles’s tenure there, the Kalo Shop established a reputation for design and craft of the highest order, and for furthering the Arts & Crafts ethos in America. As the works in A New Woman demonstrate, Kalo Shop silver embodied the company’s motto, “beautiful, useful, and enduring.” Under her tutelage, the Kalo Shop trained and supported generations of designers, jewelers, and silversmiths, from its heyday in the early 1900s through the Depression. As Darling noted in Chicago Metalsmiths (1977), it was “the city’s most influential concern producing hand wrought silver,” and one of the most important Arts & Crafts centers in the country.

Clara Barck Welles has long been recognized as the founder and owner of the Kalo Shop of Chicago, famous for its elegant Arts & Crafts silver hollowware, flatware, and

A New Woman – Clara Barck Welles, Inspiration and Influence in Arts & Crafts Silver was a labor of love for all of the contributors and lenders, made possible at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum

of Art through generous donations supporting the museum. The exhibition and its installation design were planned in collaboration with Marilyn Archer, Curatorial and Design Consultant, and Margo Grant Walsh, Consultant. My thanks to both for their collaboration and support, particularly Margo, whose discerning eye, collecting acumen, knowledge and deep appreciation of Kalo silver and the important contributions of Clara Barck Welles made all of this possible. The exhibition and publication build on Sharon Darling’s groundbreaking 1977 book, and on Darcy Evon’s equally essential Hand Wrought Arts & Crafts Metalwork & Jewelry, 1890 – 1940 (2014). I cannot thank them enough for supporting this project so generously through their writing and advice, and in Evon’s case, making and facilitating important loans to the exhibition. I thank the Portland Art Museum and its director of collections and exhibitions, Donald Urquart, and director Brian Ferriso for lending such stellar examples of Kalo silver to the JSMA during the challenging time of the COVID pandemic. My thanks to Joshua Bair, Darcy Evon, Robert Maxwell, Robert Taylor, Naoma Tate, and John Walcher for supporting the show with loans of exceptional quality.

bringing all of the silver here safely, and to Chris for his much valued support throughout this complex project. Thanks as well to the JSMA’s installation staff, Joey Capadona, Mark O’Hara, and Beth Robinson-Hartpence for their superb work mounting the exhibition, and to the JSMA’s graphic designer, Mike Bragg, for his excellent work on installation graphics and publications, including this book. Exhibition photography was ably provided by the JSMA’s photographer Jonathan Smith. Editor and proofreader Susan Mannheimer applied her skilled attention to all texts for this project, and Debbie Williamson Smith assisted with our public relations and communications efforts. My thanks to all. Clara Barck Welles was a unique woman who made a lasting contribution to her time, both artistically and socially. It has been a pleasure to learn her story and to help share it with the world. John S. Weber Executive Director

My thanks to our collections manager Chris White and registrar Erin Doerner for their timely and effective work

Clara B. Welles: A New Woman for a New Century Sharon S. Darling

Clara Barck Welles (1868-1965) is best remembered as a Chicago entrepreneur whose Kalo Shop launched a generation of Chicago area silversmiths and jewelers. But she was also a prominent leader in advancing women’s suffrage and increasing women’s participation in the arts in Illinois. Although Welles’s name evokes silver products defined by elegance and luxury, she was a self-made businesswoman with humble beginnings. Clara Pauline Barck was fourth in a family of six daughters. Her father Johann (naturalized as John) had immigrated to Brooklyn, New York, in 1856 from Finland, when it was under the rule of Russia; her mother was a native of Switzerland. John was a shoemaker in the village of Ellenville, about 100 miles north of New York City, when Clara was born on August 4, 1868. While Clara was still a toddler, the family moved to Kent County, Michigan. John Barck may have moved to the area to join Finnish family members or to take advantage of the opportunity to own cheap farmland. The family settled in or near Grand Rapids before moving southeast to a river town named Alaska, where Helena, the youngest daughter, was born in 1873.

In 1878, when Clara Barck was ten years old, the family moved again, this time to Oregon. They settled near Oregon City, a few miles up the Willamette River from Portland. John bought a farm south of town in an area known as Pleasant Hill. Clara was only 15 when her father died in 1883, leaving the women to run the farm. Margaret Barck and her younger daughters lived on the farm until 1888, when they moved to Oregon City. Clara Barck worked as a weaver at the Oregon City Manufacturing Co., a large woolen mill, for several years. After completing the course at the Portland Business College in 1890, she was a bookkeeper and then a clerk at Louis Kreiss’s department store in Portland. Later she oversaw the drapery department at Forbes & Breeden, where she honed her skills as an interior decorator. Barck’s budding public speaking skills were evident by 1895, when she became involved in a local debating society. After one session, the local newspaper singled out Miss Barck as being “especially able” in debating the local college boys. In 1897, Barck moved to San Francisco, where she was employed as a salesclerk, possibly for the main Louis Kreiss

Clara Barck Welles, Fowler Studio, 1906, Evanston, Illinois

Employees and students posed in front of Kalo House at the Art-Craft Community, Park Ridge, c. 1910. Clara Barck Welles is seated in center; George Welles is standing second from right. Sharon S. Darling Collection, gift of Robert R. Bower

store, which was based in San Francisco. Meanwhile, her mother had the family farm laid out in lots and divided the property among her daughters. Clara Barck’s coming of age coincided with the emergence of the feminist movement at the turn of the 20th century. The term “New Woman,” first used in 1894, stood for the progress middle-to-upper class women were making towards self-sufficiency, and the shift in the focus of their energies from home to workplace. The concept of the New Woman captured the interest and imagination of writers and image makers alike. Articles appeared in magazines, journals and newspapers and set off debates pro-and-con about the evolving role of women. Despite the uproar, there was widespread agreement that women should be trained to be self-support-

ing. And, like Barck, many young women identified paid work as a major vehicle of woman’s emancipation. In March 1898, with her share of proceeds from the sale of the family farm, Barck left the west coast to enroll in the Department of Decorative Design at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. This was a new degree program, primarily attracting women, that offered training in art and design, along with crafts such as pottery, jewelry making, and graphic design. It is possible that Barck learned of the program through her niece, Wilhelmina Joehnke, a schoolteacher who attended summer classes at the University of Chicago after 1891. In the June 1900 Federal Census, Clara Barck and Wilhelmine Joehnke were listed as students boarding together in Hyde Park.

The Kalo Shop Clara Barck received her degree in June 1900, and within weeks launched a business with five of her fellow graduates. Four of the partners in the new business were at least 30 years old. Thus, it appears that the women who founded the Kalo Shop in Chicago on September 1, 1900, were all New Women serious about utilizing their new skills in the arts and crafts. They chose the name Kalo, from a Greek word meaning “to make beautiful.” They designed book plates, jewelry, and textiles, and worked in metals and leather. Since she had a business degree, Barck was the logical choice as manager. By the time Clara Barck married Chicago fuel dealer George Sill Welles on February 2, 1905, most of her original partners had moved on to other endeavors. That year she incorporated the Kalo Shop with the backing of several women investors. In 1906 Clara Welles moved the workshop to Park Ridge, where she, George, and her sister Helena E. Barck operated the Kalo Arts Crafts Community in a large rambling farmhouse. They produced a variety of salable crafts, while operating a popular school that taught classes in jewelry and metalworking. Utilizing her marketing skills to promote the enterprise, she organized traveling exhibitions and lectured to women’s clubs and organizations on her favorite topic, “Woman in the Arts and Crafts.” As vice-president of the alumni association, she helped launch the annual series of applied arts exhibitions at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1902 and frequently served on its jury. She was also an active member of the Cordon Club, an association of prominent artistic, literary, and professional women, headquartered in Chicago’s Fine Arts building, where the Kalo Shop maintained its retail outlet. In 1912, with the business on a firm footing, Welles opened a retail branch of the Kalo Shop, managed by sister Helena, on Fifth Avenue in New York City.

Right, Top to bottom: Garden and outbuildings behind Kalo House, Park Ridge, c. 1910. Sharon S. Darling Collection, gift of Robert R. Bower Kalo silversmiths, Park Ridge, c. 1910. Left to right, Isadore Friedman, Julius O. Randall, Unidentified, Heinrich Eicher, Peter Berg. Sharon S. Darling Collection, gift of Robert R. Bower Silversmiths working in the Kalo workshop at 32 N. Michigan Avenue, Chicago, 1914-1917. Sharon S. Darling Collection, gift of Robert R. Bower

Left: Clara, holding flag, with members of the Illinois delegation preparing to leave Chicago for the suffrage march in Washington, D.C., in March 1913. Clara designed the bonnet and sash worn by the Illinois women in the suffrage colors of yellow and white. (CHM, Chicago Daily News)

Reformer and Suffragist Welles actively campaigned for the betterment of industrial conditions affecting women. After all, she had first-hand experience, having been a factory worker and a shop girl for a decade before becoming a business manager and owner. In 1912 she was one of 32 women organizing the Park Ridge Improvement Association (now the Twentieth Century Club) and served as its first president. In addition to educating her neighbors about the need for women to have the vote, Welles led the women in agitating for cleaner alleys, better food sanitation, and other civic improvements. At the time, she was described as “a woman with the two necessary talents for leadership – executive ability and the power of imagination to formulate new endeavors.” She was described as an “indefatigable worker” in 1915 when she hosted some 30 residents of the Illinois Industrial School for Girls in Park Ridge for Thanksgiving dinner at Kalo House. Paralleling Welles’s involvement in progressive politics was her role in the Illinois Equal Suffrage Association. In 1912 she served on its executive board and was chairman of the state’s publicity committee. In the association, she worked closely with many of Chicago’s most famous women. Board members included social workers Jane Addams and Mary McDowell, and philanthropists and reformers like Mrs. Medill McCormick, wife of the managing editor of the Chicago Tribune, Louise deKoven Bowen, married to prominent manufacturer and banker Joseph T. Bowen, and clubwoman Mrs. George W. Trout, who was also president of the Chicago Political Equality League. As a young woman in Oregon, Clara had an excellent role model close at hand. Her younger sister, Wilhelmine, was married to Wilkie C. Duniway, whose mother, Abigail Scott Duniway, is celebrated as Oregon’s Mother of Equal Suffrage and the pioneer Woman Suffragist of the Great Northwest. A pioneer settler who arrived in Oregon by oxcart in 1852, Duniway devoted over 40 years to the cause of women’s rights, working as a lecturer, organizer, writer, and newspaper owner and editor. Despite staunch opposition from some of the most influential men in Oregon—including her own brother, who was editor of Portland’s largest newspaper—these victories came to pass. Abigail Duniway was 78 when Oregon’s governor asked her to write the Oregon Woman Suffrage Proclamation giving women the vote; it was passed in 1912.

In 1913 the Illinois Association decided to send a large delegation to Washington to march in a big suffrage parade on March 3, one day before the inauguration of President-elect Woodrow Wilson. Clara, as state publicity chairman, was made head of the Illinois delegation. She sent out invitations to all the leagues and associations in the state and designed buttons, banners, pennants, and costumes. Welles arranged for a special train to take the women to Washington, D.C. She was determined they would enjoy all the comforts provided for male politicians when they traveled, except smoking. And with ladylike decorum. “We shall talk over a cheerful cup of tea and listen to suffrage speeches,” she told reporters, but “refrain from saying anything unkind about our opposition, like calling them dishonest and liars.” The Middle West Suffrage Special, decorated with yellow bunting, the suffrage color, left Chicago serenaded by a lively brass band; Clara rehearsed her troops at every stop along the way. Thousands of spectators turned out for the parade in Washington. As the women marched, the crowd, largely composed of unruly men, was allowed to insult, jeer, spit upon, and abuse the marchers without even an attempt on the part of the police to restrain them, reported the Chicago Tribune, which also noted that the Illinois women were the best drilled of any of the delegations. According to one participant, “Things were said to women that I can’t repeat. Mrs. George Welles is the only one from Illinois who was caught hold of. She was at the head of the band, keeping time with the baton, and a man grabbed her. She brought the baton down on his head in perfect time, and he let her go.” The women’s experiences led to major news stories and even congressional hearings but resulted in little action. However, the parade gave the suffrage movement a new wave of strength and resolve. In June 1913 Governor Edward F. Dunne signed the Illinois Municipal Voting Act that gave women the right to vote, making Illinois the first state east of the Mississippi to do so. But it was not a complete victory. Illinois women could now vote for presidential electors, mayor, aldermen and most other local offices, but not for governor, state representatives, or members of Congress. That would have to wait until the 19th Amendment was passed in 1920.

Occupational Therapy Pioneer In 1917, Welles was among the organizers of the Chicago chapter of the Altrusa club, patterned after men’s Rotary clubs, to help business and professional women prepare for America’s entry into World War I. As an Altrusa director, she often spoke at annual conventions on her work as a silversmith, and the restorative effects of the handicrafts on rehabilitating disabled soldiers and sailors. In 1918, when the war ended, Welles became the first person in the United States to begin training teachers to instruct disabled soldiers returning from France. In a letter to her sister Wilhelmine, she wrote “I was chosen because of my vocational training, my experience in handling men, and because of my understanding of the economic value of the work.” As a first step, she suggested training teachers in a practical workshop, and offered her own shop and services. Clara, center, melting silver and gold objects in the Kalo Shop on SelfDenial Day in 1914. (CHM, Chicago Daily News)

Although Welles resigned as publicity chairman after the march, she continued to support suffrage activities. In July 1914, a group of prominent Chicago society women hosted a “self denial” drive. They donated gold and silver trinkets to be converted into bullion to raise money for the national suffrage campaign. The melting pot was installed in the Kalo Shop, with Clara in charge. With Mrs. Medill McCormick serving as mistress of ceremonies, the event was attended by nearly 100 women, each of whom dropped a piece of non-Kalo gold or silver into the melting pots. Welles’s work with the suffrage movement and her involvement in the arts paid double dividends. She understood that independent businesswomen were most likely to be successful if they could exploit a niche market catering specifically to other women. Hand wrought silver and jewelry were luxury items, and Clara’s friendships with the city’s civic and social leaders resulted in publicity and patronage for the Kalo Shop. As Welles became more involved with women’s suffrage, cracks surfaced in her marriage. In 1916, when her divorce was granted, Welles shocked the court when she asked for no alimony, saying that she was a businesswoman with a good income, and that George Welles had no business whatsoever. Now divorced, Clara Barck Welles consolidated the Kalo Shop’s retail and manufacturing operations in Chicago.

The Kalo workshop at 32 N. Michigan Avenue, Chicago, 1914-1917. Sharon S. Darling Collection, gift of Robert R. Bower

The Kalo Shop flourished in the 1920s, employing 36 workers. But in the 1930s, the Great Depression took its toll, reducing the number of workmen to four. In 1936, Clara moved her retail shop to Michigan Avenue, a new location that offered greater visibility for the shop’s products. It remained in the same spot for the next 34 years.

Left: The Kalo Shop. American, ca. 1912-1916. Pitcher. Silver. 6 1/2 x 8 1/2 x 7 inches. Collection of the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art Right: The Kalo Shop. American, Candlestick Pair. Silver. 12 inches. Loan of Margo Grant Walsh

In 1937, when a selection of Welles’s silver designs was included in the Contemporary American Design exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the reviewer for the New York Sun singled out her work, which “seemed to express more of a freshly creative trend than did most of the other work shown, for we could not in her pieces trace so quickly the influences that had guided their conception.” The Chicago Daily Tribune’s critic, noting Welles’s firm belief that every article of silver for the home should be both beautiful and useful, stressed the practical nature of her pieces, most of which served equally well as flower containers or food serving pieces.

An Active Retirement In 1939, declaring “forty years of Chicago winters are about enough,” Welles movedww to San Diego, California, locating next door to her long-time friend, Arthur L. Frazer, a music teacher and concert pianist. Although in her 70s, she was only partially retired, and periodically returned to Chicago to check on the Kalo Shop’s activities. In San Diego, Welles remained a popular lecturer, illustrating her talks on silver craft with pieces from the Kalo Shop. During World War II, she put her drawing board aside to plant a victory garden and host meetings of the Relief for France society. She became heavily involved in local politics and campaign activities, organizing a group called the Republican Minute Women to map out plans for candidates to win local and national campaigns. In 1959, when she was 91, Welles gave the Kalo Shop to its four remaining employees. They continued the business until July 31, 1970. Clara Barck Welles died in her 96th year on March 14, 1965. Although no physical monument commemorates her life, Welles would have been pleased to know that work from the Kalo Shop is widely appreciated by collectors, and that women have assumed powerful roles in business and politics today.

Clara Barck Welles in August 1948. Sharon S. Darling Collection, gift of Robert R. Bower

The Kalo Shop. American, ca. 1929-34. Centerpiece Punch Bowl (large). 58.80 troy ounces; hand wrought sterling silver withhammered surface. 5 1/4 x 13 3/4 inches (dia.). Loan of Margo Grant Walsh, New York, New York

The Kalo Shop. American, ca. 1920. Centerpiece Bowl. 24.55 troy ounces; sterling silver with hammered surface. 3 3/4 x 9 3/4 inches (dia.). Loan of Margo Grant Walsh, New York, New York

The Kalo Shop. American, n.d. Fluted Compote. Silver. 8 7/8 x 7 inches (dia.). Loan of Margo Grant Walsh, New York, New York

Lebolt & Company. American, ca. 1910-18. Tea Service . Silver. A: 6 3/4 x 9 1/4 x 5 1/2 inches; B: 4 x 6 x 4 3/4 inches; C: 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches; D: 3/4 x 13 1/4 x 18 1/4 inches. Margo Grant Walsh Twentieth Century Silver andMetalwork Collection, gift of Margo Grant Walsh

The Randahl Shop. American, ca. 1911-39. Pitcher. Silver. overall: H. 8 3/4 x W. 4 1/2 in; H. 22.225 x W. 11.43 cm. wMargo Grant Walsh Twentieth Century Silver and Metalwork Collection, gift of Margo Grant Walsh

The Kalo Shop: Hand Wrought Metalwork and Jewelry Darcy L. Evon

Hannah Christabel Beye (1879-1965) was a talented jeweler who worked with Chicago metalsmith Jessie Preston before she merged her jewelry studio into the Kalo Shop in early 1904. These necklaces show many features of early Kalo jewelry, including cutouts, cabochon stones, and geometric patterns.

From 1900 the Kalo Shop was synonymous with innovation and entrepreneurship in arts and crafts design, jewelry and metalwork. No single studio embodied the breadth of the Arts and Crafts Movement or had such a great impact on the spirit of a major city than the Kalo Shop. Its persistent quality, original designs, progressive politics and emphasis on entrepreneurship—as well as the crucial role women played in its success—made the Kalo Shop unique. The shop epitomized the philosophy of the British Arts and Crafts Movement coupled with the intensity of Chicago commerce: women entrepreneurs like Barck believed they could build profitable businesses, create jobs, promote equality for women and immigrants, and improve the conditions of working people through the new and exciting industry of hand wrought art and handicrafts. In 1900, Clara Barck and five women designers founded the Kalo Shop after graduating from Louis Millet’s three-year design course at the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC), and the shop quickly became recognized as a leader in the emerging art industries sweeping America. The women injected style

and hand-crafted expertise into a multitude of otherwise mundane household and personal items, such as tote bags, wallpapers, leather accessories, lamp shades, pottery, tiles, furniture, pyrographic items, basket-weaving, textiles, embroideries, bookplates, purses, handbags, copper items and silver jewelry. Their motto was to create objects “beautiful, useful, and enduring.” Many aspiring women artisans came and left the Kalo Shop in the early years, but Barck, who was an experienced bookkeeper and business manager from her days in Oregon, controlled the finances and built the company into a profitable enterprise. By 1903, jewelry and metalwork became more prominent when fellow artisan Mable Conde Dickson joined the partnership, and in 1904 Hanna C. Beye merged her jewelry practice into the Kalo Shop. Beye participated in many exhibitions throughout the Midwest and helped establish the Kalo Shop as a leader in innovative jewelry designs. Her diverse silver work included intricately carved, pierced, and hammered designs, sometimes decorated with enamel.

The Kalo Arts Crafts Community House and Kalo artisans, Park Ridge, IL.

The first four men silversmiths and jewelers employed by the Kalo Shop, c.1908. From left to right: Julius Olaf Randahl (1880-1972), Henri Anton Eicher (1876-1923), Matthias William Hanck (1883-1955), and Henry Richard “Dick” Sorensen (1890-1991).

Around 1903 Barck was introduced to the inveterate entrepreneur George S. Welles by his son-in-law Frederick Richardson, who was a well-known illustrator and AIC instructor. Barck and Welles married after a two-year courtship: she was 36 and he was 57. The couple moved to suburban Park Ridge, Illinois, where Clara soon realized her dream to establish an arts and crafts school and workshop. In 1906 her sister Helena Barck left her teaching career in Oregon and bought the large, rambling farmhouse at 322 Grant Place that had been built by George Welles for his first wife, Ella Robb, but had been sold in their divorce. In 1907, the house was transferred to the Kalo Shop for stock, and Clara raised additional capital from women investors, giving birth to the Kalo Arts Crafts Community House. In 1907, Clara Welles recruited Julius Olaf Randahl as the first professional silversmith to the Kalo Shop. He had worked at the Marshall Field & Co. wholesale hand wrought silver workshop and brought much expertise to the budding enterprise in Park Ridge. He was quickly followed by Henri Anton Eicher, a master silversmith who became the foreman of the Kalo Shop, along with jeweler Matthias William Hanck and an apprentice Henry “Dick” Sorensen. They executed hand wrought, finely crafted metalwork in hammered silver or jewelry adorned with intricate flowers, leaves, or applied monograms that would soon become the hallmark of the Kalo Shop.

As jewelry and metalwork became mainstays of the Kalo Shop, Clara Welles wanted to establish a school for aspiring women metalwork designers and jewelers at the Kalo Arts Crafts Community House. She started a school for young women apprentices; in 1908 jeweler Matthias Hanck taught the first class of 20 students. He continued teaching and making jewelry for the Kalo Shop until 1911, when Hanck started his own studio. Clara Welles turned the reins of the school over to her most promising female students, including Mildred Belle Bevis and later, Esther L. Meacham. Bevis’s design book at the AIC shows metalwork designs for jewelry, table items and small trays adorned with blister pearl. This period at the Kalo Shop brought a plethora of nature motifs to early Kalo jewelry styles, including finely crafted flower and leaf designs surrounding natural pearls, mother-of-pearl, carnelian, chrysoprase, moonstone, turquoise, onyx, and many other semi-precious gemstones. Another main theme was geometric, cutout designs that also became iconic examples of the Chicago and American Arts and Crafts Movements. Highly distinctive and innovative features of Kalo silver hollowware, flatware, serving pieces, vases, candlesticks, dresser sets, desk sets, trays, trophies, and the like, included applied initials and interlocking monograms, hammer marks, rolled wire rims, and lobed designs. From 1908 to 1914, the Kalo Shop in Chicago, coupled with its workshops and “school within a workshop,” in Park Ridge, exploded in popularity. Items designed and made in the Kalo workshops and school—once they met Welles’s rigorous standards, would be sold in the Chicago retail store, leading to unprecedented output. The finest silversmiths who had trained in Scandinavia, Tiffany & Co., and Gorham, as well as aspiring metalsmiths, designers and jewelers, flocked to Park Ridge to work and study at the Kalo Shop; more than 50 people were associated with the workshops. The picturesque and verdant town was transformed into a thriving and unparalleled hand wrought commercial and artistic center. In 1912, when business was booming, Clara opened a retail branch of the Kalo Shop on Fifth Avenue in New York City that was managed by her sister Helena. The lease was “Probably the highest rent for space of its size,” according to the New York Tribune. By 1913, more than 25 professional silversmiths and jewelers were employed at the Kalo workshops in Park Ridge, and many of the entrepreneurs had started their own studios and companies, making and selling wares in their off hours—with the encouragement and full support of Welles.

Top to bottom: Matthias Hanck silver blister pearl brooch, c. 1912. Hanck was the first jewelry instructor at the Kalo School and taught dozens of aspiring women designers and makers in the fine art of hand wrought creations. This brooch shows the Kalo Shop’s early foray into multilayered silver frames and the beauty of natural pearls. Made at Hanck’s Art Jewelry Shop, Park Ridge, IL. The Kalo Shop, silver and peridot necklace. This piece demonstrates many of the key features of early Kalo jewelry: cutout geometric design, channel set stones, and paperclip chain. Photo courtesy of Boice Lydell.w

Interior of The Kalo Shop, 222 S. Michigan Avenue, in 1936. Sharon S. Darling Collection, gift of Robert R. Bower

In 1909, East Coast silversmith J. Edward O’Marah was recruited to the Kalo Shop where he excelled at Welles’s unique arts and crafts designs; two years later, the Mulholland Brothers and Carl Henry Didrich arrived to work for the shop and teach in the Kalo workshops. In June 1911 O’Marah accepted an offer to head up the fledgling hand wrought silver business of the well-known Chicago jeweler Lebolt & Co. In 1912 O’Marah helped transform Lebolt’s silver shop into a major player when the company was admitted to the prestigious annual arts and crafts show at the AIC. Exhibiting in the juried show was an important badge of honor for artisans from coast-to-coast. Many companies and studios considered it a triumph that put them on equal footing with the very best artisans and metalsmiths in the country. O’Marah entered works made by him, Didrich, David Mulholland, and six other silversmiths. Mulholland Brothers also exhibited on their own behalf that year and in five subsequent shows. John Pontus Petterson worked for Gorham, Tiffany Studios, and the Jarvie Shop before launching his own company in 1913. He was a life-long friend of Kalo silversmith C.H. Didrich, and appears in several Park Ridge photographs, indicating that he was an integral part of the Chicago silversmith ecosystem and likely taught at the Kalo School.

Both Petterson and Didrich had emigrated from their native Norway in 1904-05 to work for Gorham and Tiffany before they came to Park Ridge. In 1912, the Norwegian Bjarne Becker “B.B.” Andersen moved to Park Ridge to work for the Kalo Shop and relished his close relationships with Eicher and Welles. He married the daughter of Kalo leatherworker and delivery person William Ketter. As did all of the Kalo silversmiths, he admired and respected Welles and was proud to work for a true American pioneer who had settled on a farm in Oregon with her family in the 1870s. Known for his prodigious output, Andersen crafted hundreds of items for the Kalo Shop, under his own hallmark, for the Eicher Studio, the Eicher-Andersen partnership, and the Volund Shop. His descendants have several special occasion gifts given to them by Clara Welles. The year 1914 was a turning point for Clara Welles and the Kalo Shop. Clara was active in women’s suffrage (see Sharon Darling’s article), which was not much of a priority for George S. Welles, who preferred the life of leisure. Cracks surfaced in the marriage as Clara became more involved in Votes for Women, and in December 1912, George announced that he wanted a divorce. In the subsequent months, they maintained an uneasy reconciliation, but by February 1914, he asked Clara to file for a divorce. Clara

Copper candlesticks made by Grant Wood at the Volund Crafts Shop.

explained it to family members: “Neither one of us had as much money as the other one thought.” George insisted on reclaiming his family abode, which housed the Kalo Arts Crafts Community and School; Clara sold it to him for $1 in May 1914, as part of their divorce agreement, and began to consolidate retail and manufacturing operations in Chicago, much to the sadness of the Park Ridge community. When the divorce was granted in June 1916, Clara asked for no alimony, telling the astonished Court that she was a businesswoman with a good income and that her husband had no business whatsoever and never had much of a business. Two months later, George died of a heart attack on the Park Ridge golf course. The planned departure from Park Ridge in 1914 led to a flurry of entrepreneurial activity among Kalo artisans. Randahl and Hanck, who had formed the Julmat in 1911 as a side business, started their own companies in 1912: The Randahl Shop and Hanck’s Art Jewelry Shop. Randahl now moved his operations to Chicago—Hanck remained in Park Ridge and built a successful business. Sorensen established the Orno Shop in DeKalb, IL; the Mulholland Brothers

opened a new firm in Evanston, IL; Edward H. Breese opened his own studio in Arlington Heights; and Esther Meacham taught and made jewelry from her own shop in Park Ridge. Clara Welles was enormously proud of these endeavors and often said that almost no one left the Kalo Shop except to start their own business. In 1914, Andersen lived on the second floor of the Eicher barn with Kalo silversmith Daniel Pedersen and Kalo jewelers Kristoffer Haga and Grant Wood. While Andersen and Pedersen would travel to Chicago to work at the Kalo Shop during the day, Haga and Wood launched the Volund Crafts Shop out of the barn. Wood, from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, was an arts and crafts worker who became a protégé of Welles a year after she met him, when he exhibited his metalwork at the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC) in 1912. The Volund Crafts Shop started strong, but customers disappeared with the onset and escalation of World War I and Wood left the partnership. In January 1916, he went home to Cedar Rapids, “a ragged failure.” He returned to Chicago in 1930 to exhibit a painting in an AIC show, and won the $50 Purchase Prize for his masterpiece, American Gothic.

As World War I intensified, many of the Kalo silversmiths left Chicago to work in the naval shipyards in San Francisco to help with the war effort. From 1915-1920, the Kalo Shop relied on skilled Chicago metalsmith Falick Novick to supply a steady stream of popular copper bowls and silver items, including paper knives and exquisite tea sets with trays. Novick was a Russian immigrant who excelled as a metal craftsman and instructor at Hull-House, a noteworthy settlement house on Chicago’s Westside. Novick employed former Kalo silversmith Isadore Friedman, who himself was adept at the distinctive features of Kalo silver.

build large and harmonious collections over many years, and to give classic Kalo silver for wedding gifts and special occasions.

The Kalo Shop, with its combined retail and manufacturing facilities in Chicago, survived World War I and flourished in the post-war years with hand wrought metalwork and jewelry. As Welles often said, “Everything new eventually becomes old fashioned.” She incorporated the latest trends into metalwork and jewelry characterized by the unique Kalo style, while maintaining traditional styles that were in demand for weddings and other special occasions.

In 1939, Welles retired and moved to San Diego with her friend Arthur Frazer, and in 1959, she gave the Kalo Shop to its four remaining crafts workers: Robert Bower, Yngve Olsson, Daniel Pedersen and Arne Myhre. They continued to produce silver in traditional Kalo styles, as well as new, innovative themes, particularly in jewelry. A repousse circular brooch similar to those in the exhibition first appeared in a Peter Berg design book from 1926; these ever-popular items were made for decades. Most of the later designs were created by Yngve Olsson and Daniel Pedersen with strong Scandinavian influences, reflecting their heritage. In July 1970, after Pedersen retired and Olsson died, the shop closed, ending a legacy as one of the most progressive, enduring and innovative manufacturers of hand wrought jewelry, silver and metalwork from the American Arts and Crafts Movement.

In the early 1920s, Welles bought a brownstone at 152 E. Ontario Street in Chicago as her residence, and the retail store was located in the Fine Arts Building on Michigan Avenue. When the landlord announced that the rent on the Kalo Shop would double when she renewed her lease, Welles developed a grand plan to renovate her brownstone to include her residence, the Kalo store, and workshops that would be accessible through a lush garden in the back of the home. Lowe and Bollenbacher were the architects on the project, but Welles used all of her design sense to create a splendid, multi-use estate. In her studies, she had taken a lecture class from Frank Lloyd Wright and she also studied the History of Architecture. She was proud that the design won an honorable mention in a 1923 annual architectural contest for what became known as the Clara B. Welles Building. Before the Great Depression, Welles reported sales of $100,000 ($1.6 million in 2021 dollars), and 36 workers. Although sales fell dramatically during the economic turmoil, the Kalo Shop maintained its loyal customer base. As the largest railroad center in North America at the time, Chicago was ideal for delivering hand wrought silver from coast-to-coast, and the Kalo entrepreneurs also relied on a national customer base to sell their beautiful hand wrought wares. In 1936, Welles moved the Kalo Shop back to Michigan Avenue at 222 S. Michigan, where it survived World War II and flourished once again in the postwar years. In addition to new innovations in design, the shop maintained its traditional patterns for decades—allowing families to

More than 20 hand wrought silver, metalwork and jewelry companies and studios grew out of the Kalo Shop, and dozens of former workers went on to teach, organize arts groups, establish vocational programs for wounded veterans, and operate their shops in many areas of the United States, spreading the Kalo influence from Midwestern states to Connecticut and as far west as California.

Kalo Shop Jewelry and Hallmarks

B. B. Anderson

Randahl Shop

Mulholland Brothers

LeBolt & Co.

Kalo Shop

Individual pieces of artisan-made, hand wrought silver typically have a “hallmark” stamped on them, normally under the base of hollowware, on the underside of the stem for flatware, or on the back side of jewelry. This stamped mark identifies the shop or silversmith that made the piece. As seen here, Kalo Shop hallmarks changed over time, as did those of other silversmiths in the Chicago area.

Randahl, Julius Olaf; The Randahl Shop. American, ca. 1925. Serving set . Sterling silver. A: 9 1/2 inches; B: 10 1/4inches; C: 9 1/2 inches. Margo Grant Walsh Twentieth Century Silver and Metalwork Collection, gift of Margo Grant Walsh

Lebolt & Company. American, 1926. Sugar Spoons. Sterling silver. A: 5 3/8 inches, B: 5 1/4 inches. Margo Grant Walsh Twentieth Century Silver and Metalwork Collection, gift of Margo Grant Walsh

The Kalo Shop. American, ca. 1925. Pair of rectangular bowls. Sterling silver. each: H. 2 1/4 x W 8 1/2 x D. 5 inches. Margo Grant Walsh Twentieth Century Silver and Metalwork Collection, gift of Margo Grant Walsh

Mulholland Brothers, Inc. American, ca. 1920. Pair of Compotes. Sterling silver. 3 3/4 x 11 1/2 x 4 1/8 inches. Naoma Tate Collection

The Kalo Shop. American, ca. 1916. Pitcher. silver (sterling standard). 8 x 5 1/2 x 6 1/4 inches. Collection of the Portland Art Museum

Lebolt & Company. American, ca. 1910-18. Cake Plate. Silver. Diam. 12 inches Margo Grant Walsh Twentieth Century Silver and Metalwork Collection, gift of Margo Grant Walsh

The Kalo Shop. American, ca. 1912-16. Serving tray. Sterling silver. H. 1 x W. 17 x D. 10 1/4 inches. Margo Grant Walsh Twentieth Century Silver and Metalwork. Collection, gift of Margo Grant Walsh

Randahl, Julius Olaf. American, 20th century. Round tray. Silver. Diam. 11 5/16 inches. Margo Grant Walsh Twentieth Century Silver and Metalwork Collection, gift of Margo Grant Walsh

Lebolt & Company. American, 1927. Iced tea spoon. Sterling silver. 7 1/2 inches Margo Grant Walsh Twentieth Century Silver and Metalwork Collection, gift of Margo Grant Walsh

Wood, Grant. American. Spoon. Silver. 6 inches. On Loan from Robert M. Taylor

The Kalo Shop. American, ca. 1920s. Candlesticks . Silver.H. 12 inches. Loan of Margo Grant Walsh, New York, New York

The Petterson Studio. American, ca. 1912-1914. Small Container with Lid. Sterling silver. H. 3 1/4 x Dia. 3 inches Naoma Tate Collection

The Kalo Shop. American. Monogrammed Pill Box. Silver. 1 1/2 x 1 3/4 x 1/2 inches. On Loan from Robert M. Taylor

The Kalo Shop. American, ca. 1925. Silver box. silver (sterling standard). 1 1/2 x 5 5/16 x 3 1/8 inches. Collection of the Portland Art Museum

Lebolt & Company. American, ca. 1925. Small bowl . Silver. H: 3 x top Diam. 5 3/8 x bottom Diam. 4 1/4 inches. Margo Grant Walsh Twentieth Century Silver and Metalwork Collection, gift of Margo Grant Walsh

Lebolt & Company. American, ca. 1925. Small bowl. Silver. H. 1 1/2 x Daim. 4 7/8 inches. Margo Grant Walsh Twentieth Century Silver and Metalwork Collection, gift of Margo Grant Walsh

Mulholland Brothers, Inc. American, ca. 1914-20. Bowl. Silver. H. 2 x W. 8 3/8 in; H. 5.08 x W. 21.2725 cm. Margo Grant Walsh Twentieth Century Silver and Metalwork Collection, gift of Margo Grant Walsh

Lebolt & Company. American, ca. 1920. Pair of salt cellars. Sterling silver. each: Diam. 1 3/4 inches. Margo Grant Walsh Twentieth Century Silver and Metalwork Collection, gift of Margo Grant Walsh

The Kalo Shop. American, ca. 1929. Salt and Pepper. silver (sterling standard). 3 1/4 x 1 11/16 inches diam. (each). Collection of the Portland Art Museum

The Kalo Shop. American, ca. 1925. Salt and pepper casters. Sterling silver. each: H. 2 1/8 x W. 1 5/16 x D. 1 5/16 inches. Margo Grant Walsh Twentieth Century Silver and Metalwork Collection, gift of Margo Grant Walsh

The Kalo Shop. American. Pair of Salt/Pepper shakers silver. 4 1/2 x 2 inches dia. (each) On Loan from Robert M. Taylor

The Randahl Shop. American, early 20th century. Pair of Candelabras. Silver. Base: 4 inches (dia.); H. to tallest base: 8-1/2 inches; H. to middle base: 7 1/2 inches; H. to shortest base: 6 1/2 inches; 8 1/2 inches from shortest to tallest Naoma Tate Collection

Published by

Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art 1430 Johnson Lane 1223 University of Oregon Eugene, Oregon 97403-1223 541-346-3027 jsma.uoregon.edu

ISBN TBD A New Woman – Clara Barck Welles, Inspiration and Influence in Arts & Crafts Silver exhibition and publication are made possible at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art through generous donations supporting the museum. The exhibition and its installation design were planned in collaboration with Marilyn Archer, Curatorial and Design Consultant, and Margo Grant Walsh, Consultant. , and the generous contributions of our JSMA members. John S. Weber, Editor Susan Mannheimer and Debbie Williamson-Smith, Copyeditors Mike Bragg, Designer Photography by Jonathan B. Smith

Printed through the Wethinkink

© 2022 Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art. All rights reserved. No portion of this publication may be reproduced without the written permission of the publisher. The University of Oregon is an equal-opportunity, affirmative-action institution committed to cultural diversity and compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. This publication is available in accessible formats upon request.

Installation views, John and Ethel MacKinnon Gallery, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, December 2021.

University of Oregon

A New Woman – Clara Barck Welles, Inspiration and Influence in Arts & Crafts Silver

Articles inside

Color Plates

Clara B. Welles: A New Woman for a New Century

Credits

The Kalo Shop: Hand Wrought Metalwork and Jewelry

Foreword and Acknowledgments