Jessie Luther at the Grenfell Mission
Description
While her journal concentrates on her efforts to teach weaving, carving, metal work, pottery, carpentry, basket weaving, and her best known accomplishment, the hooked mats that have become famous for their strong designs and meticulous craftsmanship, she also describes the local people and customs of St Anthony and life in the household of the Grenfell workers. After she left Newfoundland, Luther became one of the pioneers of occupational therapy in the United States, spending the rest of her professional life as director of occupational therapy at the Butler Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island. Edited by Ronald Rompkey, author of the most authoritative biography of Grenfell, Luther's journal provides an unusually intimate account of Wilfred Grenfell during these four years B his idiosyncracies, his attempts to meet the needs of the community, his rescue from a floating ice pan, his marriage B and brings to life the Newfoundlanders with whom she worked.
Reviews
"An important link that has been missing in the literature on Grenfell and the Grenfell Mission. Rompkey has admirably researched Miss Luther's background, giving key insights into her character. His scholarship is unfailing and extensive. A job well done!" Paula Laverty, Guest Curator for Matting Season: Hooked Mats of the Grenfell Mission, Museum for Textiles, Toronto "A significant, new primary source with substantioal contextual support. Rompkeys scholarship and methodology are sound, his research on Jessie Luther conprehensive. Her journal also stands as a vivid portrait of a woman's frontier experience very much rooted in its time and place." Ellen Easton McLeod, author of In Good Hands: The Women of the Canadian Handicrafts Guild