Gustav Stickley

Gustav Stickley

(1858-1942)
Born in Wisconsin, he was an American furniture designer and maker who largely created what came to be known as the Mission style. He established the Craftsman Workshops in Syracuse in 1901 and began publishing the monthly magazine The Craftsman to carry his ideas and designs to a wider audience. Although he owed much to the British Arts and Crafts Movement, Stickley was a highly original designer who applied his ideas not only to furniture but to decorative accessories of all kinds. One of the most popular features of The Craftsman was a series of house designs intended to suit modest incomes, based as it was on Christian socialism. The popularity of Craftsman furniture waned after a decade and a half, and in 1916 Stickley ceased publishing his magazine and gave up his bankrupt workshops to two younger brothers. Two other brothers had for some time produced similar furniture under the name L. and J.G. Stickley.