Exhibition of Modern British Crafts toured North America from 1942­ to 1945, opening at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Described by its British organizers and by American critics as a legacy of William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement he inspired on both sides of the Atlantic, the exhibition reinforced the idea of a cultural heritage shared by Britain and the United States. It was also understood as a manifesto for modern craft. This lecture examines the contents, layout, and reception of the exhibition and compares it to related wartime exhibitions.

Imogen Hart is an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of History of Art. Professor Hart works on modern art and material culture in Britain, especially the objects and interiors associated with the Arts and Crafts movement. She is the author of Arts and Crafts Objects (Manchester University Press, 2010) and co-editor, with Jason Edwards, of Rethinking the Interior, c. 1867-1896: Aestheticism and Arts and Crafts (Ashgate, 2010). She has published articles and book chapters on William Morris, the Arts and Crafts movement, and Victorian and Edwardian painting. Hart is currently working on a book, provisionally entitled Sculpture in the Age of Darwin, which explores the production and reception of modern sculpture in Britain and the United States in relation to evolutionary theory.