Handicraft has long been associated with the Appalachian region, especially the Southern Appalachians. In the late 19th century, missionary and social service organizations moved outward from more urban, industrialized sections of the United States into the remote "frontier," a swath of highlands that lay diagonally along the eastern third of the country. A lack of infrastructure--of schools, roads, water, and waste disposal--left the region comparatively impoverished. To some, handicraft appeared as a solution to poverty, if only mountain people could market some of the things they already made to national markets. Some craft workers from outside the region thought that teaching handicraft might expand or improve its production.

So many craft organizations emerged during the decades from 1890 through 1940 that the period is known as the Appalachian Craft Revival. The Hindman and Pine Mountain Settlement Schools and Berea College in Kentucky; the John C. Campbell Folk School