Elbert Hubbard: An American Original

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Elbert Hubbard established a well-known campus named Roycroft. In 1900, the New York Times claimed Roycroft was a crafting paradise. Elbert Green Hubbard knew how to make things happen.  Hubbard began selling soap in Illinois and was a very successful salesman. With his charm he pulled people in and sold the goods. Buffalo was where his company brought him to take over at Larkin Soap Company. As an adult, Hubbard wishes he had never been subject to religious sermons. Even though his village was very religious, he was close to becoming a priest.

Hubbard was a lover of ambition and ego. Society demanded that those who bore children were to be married so when Hubbard and Alice had a child, Alice’s sister took the child and Hubbard and Alice separated. Arts and Crafts were becoming mass-produced by machines and were losing the human aspect of handiwork. At the turn of the century, he was in the eye of the perfect storm.

Middle Class could not afford the furniture that Hubbard was producing. Therefore, Hubbard had to concentrate on the business issue at hand. Hubbard resulted in using machines of many types to ease the process of furniture making. Although he strayed from using machines for many years, his business would explode once he gained the skill of using machinery.

Many people were calling Hubbard brash, because Elbert Hubbard began marking his territory and carved his mark into every piece of work. He was eventually a spokesman for the Arts and Crafts movement in America. He was known to be the embodiment of the American dream. Bertha was a great wife, but Hubbard was secretly writing Alice. After 15 years of writing each other, a public lawsuit came forward from Miriam’s stepparents for unpaid child support bills. Hubbard and Alice would soon become married and their daughter would find out her true parents.

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