Home > Artist Database > Bio-bibliographic Database > MOWAT, Grace Helen
Artist Database
MOWAT, Grace Helen
- Born
- St. Andrews, New Brunswick, 1875
- Died
- St. Andrews, New Brunswick, 1964
- Biography synopsis
- Grace Helen Mowat was born in St. Andrews, New Brunswick in 1875. Mowat attended the Richmond School of Art and Music from December 1893 until May 1894. Two and half years later she enrolled at the Women’s Art School at the Cooper Union in New York City. Although she was not keen to teach art after graduating, she took a post at St. Catherine’s Hall, a diocesan school for girls in Augusta, Maine. She subsequently taught at Halifax Ladies College from 1901 until 1905. Following a nervous breakdown in 1907, and motivated by economic necessity and the desire to improve the lives of farm families in St. Andrews, Mowat purchased three hooked rugs made by women in St. Andrews based on her own designs, and sent them to a handicrafts shop in Montreal in 1913. The rugs sold quickly, and Charlotte County Cottage Craft was born. Mowat’s vision for the venture was founded on the use of indigenous materials and original designs. Until 1919, Cottage Craft was based at Mowat’s childhood farm Beech Hill. In 1924 Cottage Craft products were included in the Canadian Pacific Pavilion at the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley in England. After the success of Cottage Craft was well-established, Mowat turned to writing, and published several books about the region in which she lived. She founded the Music, Art, and Drama Society in 1934, which was conceived of as a society for women. In 1951 she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree by the University of New Brunswick.
- Media used
- Painting
- Pottery
- Textiles
- Education
- Women's Art School at the Cooper Union, New York City, 1897 - 1900 (under John Henry Twatchman; Howard Chandler Christy; Frederic Deilman; Willard L. Metcalf; William L. Lathrop)
- Richmond School of Art and Music, London, England, 1893 - 1894
- File & Archive locations
- National Gallery of Canada, ON - Library and Archives
- University of British Columbia - Fine Arts Library
- Charlotte County Archives, NB
- University of New Brunswick - Archives and Special Collections Department
- Canadian Women Artists History Initiative Documentation Centre, QC
- BIBLIOGRAPHY
Writings about- "Grace Helen Mowat." Atlantic Advocate May 1964
- "Shiretown Items." St. Croix Courier 5 Jun 1941
- Chlebek, Diana. "Canada." Journal of Commonwealth Literature 44:4 (2009): 25-57
- Clark, Mrs. J.G. "At St. Andrews: Helen Grace Mowat Memorial Exhibit Held By Music, Art and Drama Club." Fredericton Gleaner 21 Apr 1964
- Cunningham, Lewis Arthur. "Among the Cottage Crafters." Canadian Home Journal (March 1933)
- Dagg, Anne Innis. The Feminine Gaze: A Canadian Compendium of Non-Fiction Women Authors and their Books, 1836-1945 Waterloo: Wilfred Laurier University Press, 2001
- F.W. "History of Cottage Craft and Miss Mowat’s Philosophy." St. Andrews Beacon (21 July 1917)
- Jack, David Russell. "The Mowat Family." Acadiensis 8: 4 (Oct. 1908)
- MacDonald, Colin S. The Dictionary of Canadian Artists. (Volumes 1-8 by Colin S. MacDonald, and volume 9 by Anne Newlands and Judith Parker) Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 2009
- McLeod, Ellen Mary Easton. In Good Hands: The Women of the Canadian Handicrafts Guild Ottawa: Carleton University Press, 1999
- Pringle, Gertrude E.S.. "Back to the Days of Cottage Craft: The Story of Helen G. Mowat and How She Succeeded in Expanding $10 to $12,000." Maclean’s Magazine 5 (1 March 1922): 52-55
- Pringle, Gertrude E.S.. "Where Cottage Craft is Plied.” Modern Priscilla (Feb. 1923)
- Rees, Diana with Ronald Rees. Grace Helen Mowat and the Making of Cottage Craft Fredericton: Goose Lane Editions, 2009
- Rygeil, Judith Anne. Women of the Cloth: Weavers in Westmorland and Charlotte Counties, New Brunswick 1871-1897 Carleton University: 1998
- Sackett, Andrew J.. Doing History in the ‘Great Cyclorama of God’: Tourism and the Presentation of the Past in Twentieth-Century St. Andrews, New Brunswick Queen's University: 1995
- Sclanders, Ian. “The Famous Cottage Craft Industry Founded and Directed in Charlotte County by Miss Grace Helen Mowat.” Saint John Telegraph-Journal (10 Nov. 1937)
- Sclanders, Ian. “The St. Andrews Weavers.” Saint John Telegraph-Journal (5 March 1949)
- Wood, Eizabeth Wyn. “Canadian Handicrafts.” Canadian Art 2.5 (Summer 1945)
- Wren, Frances. "Recollections of My Work with Dr. Grace Helen Mowat." Proceedings of the Charlotte County Historical Society 6 (1971)
Writings by- Mowat, Grace Helen. A Story of Cottage Craft St. Andrews: Charlotte County Cottage Craft, 1958
- Mowat, Grace Helen. Broken Barrier: A Romance of Staten Island and the Province of New Brunswick Fredericton: University Press of New Brunswick, 1951
- Mowat, Grace Helen. Funny Fables of Fundy and other Poems for Children Ottawa: Ru-Mi-Lou Books, 1928
- Mowat, Grace Helen. The Diverting History of a Loyalist Town St. Andrews: Charlotte County Cottage Craft, 1932
- Mowat, Grace Helen. The House that Hurricane Jack Built Fredericton: Brunswick Press, 1954
- Mowat, Grace Helen. "Art as a Cash Crop." Dalhousie Review 22: 1 (April 1942): 31-36
- Mowat, Grace Helen. "The Tories' King: George III and the Seeds of Revolution." Atlantic Advocate 48 (Oct. 1957)
