icon for Home page
icon for Kid's Home page
icon for Digital Collection
icon for Activities
icon for Turns Exhibit
icon for In the Classroom
icon for Chronologies
icon for My Collection

Online Collection

front
(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
Contact us for information about using this image.



label levels:

There is currently no available "Beginner" label. The following is the default level label: Cornelius Kelley (1873-1954) was a Deerfield, Massachusetts farmer and blacksmith who became nationally known through his decorative wrought-iron work. Beginning around 1900, he gradually shifted his work away from the mundane blacksmithing he had been trained in to contributing delicately beautiful items to the annual Deerfield Arts and Crafts fairs. By 1915, he was well known enough to be offered a position teaching metallurgy at the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh, a position he held for only two years before returning to Deerfield. By the early 1920s his business had shifted entirely to artistic ironwork. Another major factor was the nearly complete disappearance of traditional blacksmith work in an era marked by rapid modernization. By 1942, now aged 68, he retired from active blacksmithing. Kelley's influence cannot readily be traced. But he was an important participant in one aspect of Deerfield's Arts and Crafts movement, a movement that heavily influenced American design in the first half of the 20th century.

 

top of page

Cornelius Kelley (1873-1954)

photographer   W. O. Breckon Studios
date   c. 1918
location   Deerfield, Massachusetts
height   7.63"
width   4.63"
process/materials   gelatin silver print
item type   Photograph/Photograph - Original print
accession #   #1996.12.2041.01-.03


Look Closer icon My Collection icon Detailed info icon


ecard icon Send an e-Postcard of this object



See Also...

Pair of wrought iron candelabrum

Kelley's blacksmith sign

Fern stand


button for Side by Side Viewingbutton for Glossarybutton for Printing Helpbutton for How to Read Old Documents

 

Home | Online Collection | Things To Do | Turns Exhibit | Classroom | Chronologies | My Collection
About This Site | Site Index | Site Search | Feedback