> [!NOTE]+ Meta > Author:: Emily Zaiden > Reference:: Zaiden, E. (Ed.). (2026). _Handwork: Handcrafted Objects that Made America_. The Monacelli Press. > Date:: 2026 > Tags:: #USA #warp/book > WeftLinks:: [[Historical value of craft]] > Claim:: [[Claim - Craft helps us understand the past]] > [!SUMMARY] Summary > Handwork gathers handcrafted objects spanning 250 years of American history, using each to tell an overlooked story about the people and cultures who made America. ### Highlights Edited by Emily Zaiden, director and lead curator of the Craft in America Center, with a foreword by Carol Sauvion, creator of the PBS series *Craft in America*, this is the official book of Handwork: Celebrating American Craft 2026 — a yearlong, nationwide initiative marking 250 years since the Declaration of Independence, featuring hundreds of museum exhibitions and events, a four-part PBS docuseries, and educational components. The book groups handmade objects spanning more than 250 years into four curated sections — DWELL, FEED, FURNISH, ADORN — running from a nineteenth-century Kiowa cradleboard to an antique Hawaiian papa he'enalu (surfboard) and a prototype for an iconic sneaker. It includes essays from nearly 30 experts nationwide accompanying each object, with a particular focus on overlooked narratives and underrepresented artists who helped define American life through their craft. Contemporary makers featured throughout show how these traditions live on, reimagined and renewed. Zaiden's editorial approach places celebrated masterpieces on equal footing with familiar, everyday objects, treating each as a storyteller of social history and shared experience rather than simply a work of art.