Zulma Steele

Artist/Craftswoman

Foreword by Henry T. Ford

Tom Wolf

Derin Tanyol

Bruce Weber

Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild

FRONT COVER

Zulma Steele

Self-Portrait n.d.

Graphite on paper (page from sketchbook), 8 x 6¾ inches.

Collection of Janet Marsh Hunt.

BACK COVER

Zulma Steele

Lily, c. 1903–1904.

Hand-colored woodblock print, 12½ x 4¾ inches. Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild, Alf Evers Collection, Gift of the Douglas C. James Charitable Trust.

Contents

Zulma STeele: arTiST/craFTSWoman

Exhibition dates:

August 21–October 11, 2020

Curated by: Henry T. Ford, Derin Tanyol, Bruce Weber, and Tom Wolf

Catalogue design and production:

Abigail Sturges caTaloGue SponSorS

Henry T. Ford

Douglas C. James

Paul Washington

ISBN 978-0-578-73292-3

Copyright © 2020 Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild

34 Tinker Street, Woodstock, NY 12498 miSSion STaTemenT

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by an information storage and retrieval system, without express written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. Please refer all pertinent questions to the publisher.

The Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild provides a vibrant center for arts and crafts in the beautiful and unique rural community of Woodstock, New York, while preserving the historic and natural environment of one of the earliest utopian arts colonies in America. It offers a unique and inspiring combination of residency, educational, exhibition, and performance programs that encourage creative collaboration among a diverse array of artists, students, arts professionals, and the public.

WoodSTock ByrcliFFe Guild Board oF direcTorS

Byron Bell

Joseph Belluck, Counsel

Linda Bodner, Treasurer

Oscar Buitrago, Secretary

Herb Burklund

Sam Freed

Henry T. Ford, Director Emeritus, Byrdcliffe Historian

Frances Halsband

Richard Heppner

John Koegel

Katharine L. McKenna

Catherine McNeal, President

Douglas Milford

Tani Sapirstein

Julia Santos Solomon

Abigail Sturges

Lester Walker

Paul Washington

Sylvia Leonard Wolf, Vice President

Douglas C. James, President Emeritus

Garry Kvistad, Chairman Emeritus

6 Foreword

Henry T. Ford

8 Zulma Steele

Artist/Craftswoman

Tom WolF

24 Zulma Steele and William Morris

Nature Conventionalized at Byrdcliffe derin Tanyol

34 A Minister to the Eye

The Ashokan Reservoir Series by Zulma Steele

Bruce WeBer

48 Selected Works

99 Checklist of the Exhibition

103 Biographies

104 Acknowledgments

Foreword

H enry T. F ord

Co-Curator, Byrdcliffe Historian, Board Member Emeritus

In 1903, the first artists and craftspeople arrived at Byrdcliffe, invited by Ralph Radcliffe Whitehead and his wife, Jane Byrd McCall Whitehead. All were to share in the collaborative creative experience the Whiteheads envisioned. Professionally and personally, Ralph and Jane were well connected to the art world, their circle including John Ruskin, Birge Harrison, Arthur Wesley Dow, and, of course, Bolton Brown, one of Byrdcliffe’s founders.

But it was Dow, with his position at Pratt Institute, who would prove to be most influential. It was at his urging that two of his students, Zulma Steele and Edna Walker, accepted the Whiteheads’ invitation. These two women, 1903 Pratt graduates with degrees in drawing, painting, and composition, were to become collaborators in art, crafts, design, and life. With the guidance of the Whiteheads, their combined talents soon began to influence the Byrdcliffe style. Of the two women, though, it was Zulma who became Byrdcliffe’s unofficial lead designer. It was Zulma’s hand that put the fleurde-lis, Ralph Whitehead’s chosen image for Byrdcliffe, to paper, creating a symbol that is used to this day. Her design of and location choice for Angelus, the cottage in which she and Edna would live, attest to her position at Byrdcliffe. The house was built at the highest elevation of any Byrdcliffe structure, including the Whiteheads’ home, White Pines.

Over the next twenty summers, Zulma continued her artistic practice at Byrdcliffe. Her winters were spent on lower Lexington Avenue in the New York City apartment and studio she shared with Walker. Zulma’s time at Byrdcliffe ended in 1926, when she married Nielson Parker, but her creativity continued as she explored other crafts, including ceramics, which resulted in the creation of Zedware, Zulma and Edna’s line of pottery.

In November 1938, more than a decade after she left the colony, Zulma’s influence on Byrdcliffe re-emerged splendidly. In that month and year, the first exhibition of crafts created by women was held at what is now the Woodstock Artists Association and Museum. Among those showing were Mary DuFresne, Mabel Chase, Florence Webster, Louise Lindin—and Zulma Steele Parker. This exhibition was well received, and it served to empower the women to organize the Woodstock Guild of Craftsman in 1939. Its first chairperson, not surprisingly, was Zulma Steele Parker.

In 1975, Byrdcliffe was bequeathed by Peter Whitehead, Ralph and Jane’s son, to the Woodstock Guild of Craftsman. Unfortunately, Zulma, who died in 1979, did not live to share in the pleasure of the rebirth of her two creative endeavors into the organization we now know as the Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild. This catalogue and exhibition are a celebration of the 81st anniversary of the founding of the Woodstock Guild of Craftsman and are a long-overdue tribute to Zulma Steele: Artist/Craftswoman.