The Magazine Antiques

November 23, 2009  |  Premiering tonight on PBS (check here for local listings), Elbert Hubbard: An American Original offers a sweeping profile of the arts and crafts visionary and founder of East Aurora, New York's Roycroft community. Charting the controversial and often contradictory course of Hubbard's personal and professional lives, this documentary film by Paul Lamont includes wonderful archival footage as well as interviews with Hubbard's great-grandson, author Lauren Belfer, and present day Roycroft craftsmen, among many others. With over 500 craftsmen at its peak, the Roycroft community of artisans was the earliest and most successful of its kind in the United States—making Hubbard one of the most influential figures in the craft revival movement of the twentieth century. Don't miss it!

For more on Roycroft, take a look at  an earlier feature in Inspired by Antiques.