The History of the Army Crafts Program is a short one, but quite dynamic. The mission statement of the Special Services Division should first be considered since it is the responsibility of this branch ultimately to keep the arts alive in the military

"Special Services embraces those recreational activities provided military personnel which contribute to their well-being and morale through participation on a voluntary bases. "The mission of special services is to stimulate, develop and maintain mental and physical well-being of military personnel though voluntary participation in planned recreational activity"

An Army Morale Branch was created in 1918 for the study and survey of morale problems in the Army. This was terminated with WorldWar 1 demobilization. Not until July 1940 was the office of the chief of Special Service established by the authority of the Army mobilization regulations of 1939. Special Services grew out of report by Raymond D. Fosdick, chairman of the commission training camp facilities to Secretary of War, Newton D. Baker after World War 1. Mr. Fosdick recommended that the Army assume responsibility for leisure-time programs on post. Civilian agencies had carried out previous recreational programs.
The War Department faced monumental challenges in preparing for World War 2. One of those challenges as predicted was soldier morale and recreational activities for off duty time. An arts and crafts program informally evolved to augment the needs of War Department. On January 9, 1941, the secretary of War, Henry L. Stimson, appointed Frederick H. Osborn, a prominent USA business and philanthropist, Chair of the War Department committee on Education, Recreation and Community Services to study the army needs. Mean while the army recognition of the importance of morale was a natural extension of the events occurring nationally at that time. For example, in 1940 and 1941 many different types of institution were looking for ways to help the war effort. The Museum of Modern Art in New York was one of these institutions. In April 1941, the Museum announced a poster competition, "Posters for National Defense," The director stated, "The Museum feels that in a time of national emergency the artists of a country are as important asset as men skilled in other fields, and that the nations first-rate talent should be utilized by the government for its official design work."

In 1941 the Fort Cutter Army Illustrators, while on strenuous war games maneuvers in Tennessee, began documenting their exercises. The Bulletin of the Museum of Modern Art, Vol. 9, no 3 (Feb. 1942), described their work, "Results were astonishingly good; they showed serious devotion to the purpose of depicting the Army scene with unvarnished realism and a remarkable ability to capture scenes from the soldierâs viewpoint. Civilian amateurs and professional artist had been transformed into soldier-artists. Reality and straightforward documentation had supplanted the old romantic glorification and false dramatization of war and the slick quality of commercial drawing." In August, Fort Custerâs proud Army illustrators held an exhibition, the first of it kind in the new Army. Soldiers who saw the exhibition, many of whom had never been inside an art gallery, enjoyed it beyond their imagination. Civilian visitors, too, came and admired the art of the soldiers. The work of the group showed a new aspect of the Army. There were many phases of Army life people had never seen or heard of before. The newspapers made the exhibit into big news, but most important is that the army approved of all the publicity. Army officials saw that the exhibit was not only authentic material, but that it added a source of liveliness to the army now. And, it now had a vivid medium for conveying the armyâs purpose and processes to civilians and soldiers.

Army commanders had also recognized that "efficiency" directly correlated with good morale structure. They saw that good morale was largely determined from the manner in which an individual spent his own free time. Army morale programs had by now been viewed and recognized as critical in combat staging areas by War Department leadership. It had become a priority to encourage soldiers to use the morale programs. As the army pushed forward recreational morale programs. Brigadier General Frederick H. Osborn, a 1910 Princeton Bachelor of Arts graduate and War Department leader noticed that the soldiers were not using the off duty recreation areas that were available to them. Unfortunately enormous overnight growth of the military force meant mobilization and construction at every camp. Construction was usually fast, meaning that facilities were not fancy, but rather drab and depressing. The uninviting facilities had to be improved.

A program by the Special Services Division was designed to utilize talented artist and craftsmen to decorate day rooms, mess halls, recreation halls and other places of general assembly. The decorative motif was to provide an environment that would reflect the military tradition, accomplishments and the high standard of army life. The other hope was that since this work was to be done by the men themselves it would be an added benefit of contributing to the esprit de corps of the units. The plan was first tested in October of 1941, at Camp Davis, North Carolina. A studio workshop was set up and a group of soldier artists were placed on special duty "design and decorate" the facilities. Additionally, evening recreation art classes were scheduled three times a week. A second test was established at Fort Belvior, Virginia a month later. The success of these programs lead to more installations requesting the art program.

After Pearl harbor was bombed, the Museum of Modern Art appointed Mr. James Soby, to the position of Director of the Armed Service program (January, 1942). The subsequent program became a combination of occupational therapy, exhibitions and morale-sustaining activities. Through the efforts of Mr. Soby the museum program included: a display of the Fort Custer Army illustrators work, from February though April 5, 1942. The museum also included works by soldier-photographers. On May 6, 1942, Mr. Soby opened an art sale of works donated by museum members. The sale of works donated was to raise funds for the Soldier Art Programs of Special Services Division. The bulk of these proceeds were to be used to provide facilities and materials for soldier artist in army camps throughout the country. Members of the museum had responded with hundreds of works, sculptures, waters colors, etchings, oils by Winslow Homer, Orozco, Chirico, Speicher and prints by Cezanne, Lautrec, Matisse.
Some proceeds from the Modern Museum of Art sales were used to print 25,000 booklets called "Interior Design and Soldier Art," The booklet showed examples of soldier-artist murals that decorated places of general assembly. The booklet ended up being a guide to organizing, planning and executing the soldier-artist program nation wide.. The War Department officially recognized that the plan of using solder-artist to decorate and improve buildings and grounds worked. Many artist who had been drafted into the army immediately volunteered to paint murals in waiting rooms and clubs, to decorate day rooms and landscape grounds. For each artist at work there were a thousand troops who watched. Those bystanders clamored to participate, and so new classes in drawing, painting, sculpture photography were further extended. Larger working space and more instructors were required to meet the growing demand. Civilian art instructors and local communities helped to meet this cultural need, by providing volunteer instruction and facilities.
In November, 1942, General Somervell asked that a group of artist be selected and dispatched to active theaters to paint war scenes with the stipulation that soldier artist would not paint in lieu of military duties. As the public began to view military murals in public places interaction between military and civilians brought additional credence to the Army efforts. Mrs. Aillen Osborn Webb, sister of Brigadier General Frederick H. Osborn, launched the first American Crafts Council, in 1942. She was an early champion of the Army artist program, seeing that it stuck to its natural implications.
While soldiers were participating in fixed facilities in the USA, many troops were being shipped oversees to Europe and the Pacific (1924-1945). They had long periods of idleness and waiting in staging areas. At that time the wounded were lying in hospitals, both on land and in ships at sea. The War Department and Red Cross responded by purchasing "kits" of arts and crafts tools and supplies to distribute to the restless personnel. A variety of this small "Handicrafts Kits" as they were called, were distributed free of charge to be used by a group of two to five men. These kits were self-contained packages with everything necessary to carry out the particular project . The kits were made up for leathercrafts, celluloid etching, knotting and braiding, metal tooling, drawing and clay modeling were examples of the types of kits offered. Over four hundred thousand of these kits were distributed. They were immediately seen to provided mental and physical therapy.

In January 1944, the "Interior Design Soldier Art Program" was more appropriately named the "Arts and Crafts Section of the Special Services". Their new mission statement read, "to fulfill the natural human desire to create, provide opportunities for self-expression, serve old skills and develop new ones, and assist the entire recreation program though construction work, publicity and decoration." In late fall a "National Army Art Contest" was planned to show off the success. That August the Museum of Modern Art, Armed Forces Program, organized an art center for veterans. Abby Rockefeller, in particular, had a strong interest in this project. Soldiers were invited to sketch, paint, or model under the guidance of skilled artist and craftsmen. Victor dâAmico, who was in charge of the Museumâs Education Department, was quoted in Russell Lynes book, Good Old Modern: An Intimate Portrait of the Museum of Modern Art, "I asked one fellow why he taken up art and he said, "Well I just came back from destroying everything. I made up my mind that if I ever got out of the army, I was never going to destroy another thing in my life, and I decided that art was the thing that I would do". The program turned out very successful.
A new Program in late October 1944, by the Arts and Crafts branch of Special Services Division, Headquarters called "European Theater of Operations", was established. This versatile program of handicrafts flourished among the army occupation troops. The following year in June of 1945, the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, for the first time in its history opened its facilities for an exhibition of soldier-artist in photography. Most of the artist were submitted from the "National Army Art Contest." The Infantry Journal, Inc. printed a small paperback booklet containing 215 photographs of pictures exhibited at the National Gallery of Art. During this time an increased interest in crafts, rather than fine arts, lead to a new name for the program. The "Handicrafts Branch." In 1945, the War Department published a new manual, "Soldier Handicraftsâ, to help implement the new program. The manual contained instructions for setting up crafts facilities, selecting equipment, and basic information on a variety of arts and crafts programs.

As the Army moved from a combat to a peacetime, the majority of crafts shops in the United States were becoming equipped with woodworking power machines for construction of furnishings and objects for personal living. Based on this new trend, in 1946 the program was again renamed, this time as "Manual Arts." At the same time, overseas programs were now employing local artist and craftsmen to operate the crafts facilities and instruct in a variety of new thinking projects. Unique and highly skilled, Indigenous instructors were also being hired to help stimulate the soldiers interest in respective native cultures and artifacts. By 1948 the arts and crafts practiced throughout the army were so varied and diverse that the program was again renamed, "Hobby Shops". However it was clear that this title was misleading and overlapped into other forms of recreation. In January 1951, the program was designated as, "The Army Crafts Program" and was recognized as an essential Army recreation activity along with sports, libraries, service clubs, soldier theater and soldier music. In the official statement of mission, "professional leadership" was emphasized to insure a balanced, progressive schedule of arts and crafts that would be conducted in well-equipped, attractive facilities on all army installations.

The programs was now defined in terms of a "Basic Seven Program" which included; drawing/painting, ceramics/sculpture, metal work/leathercrafts, model building, photography and woodworking. These programs were to be conducted regularly in facilities known as the multiple-type crafts shop. For functional reasons, these facilities were divided into three separate technical areas for woodworking, photography and the rest as arts and crafts.

By the mid- 1950âs the Army Crafts Directors began to see more soldiers with cars and the need to repair their vehicles. The Directors as well as soldiers familiar with the crafts shops knew that they had the right tools for jobs. So in 1958, the Army Engineers published an official "Design Guide on Crafts and Auto Crafts shops". Once more, the Army Crafts Program responded to the needs of solders and created a popular and successful program. The small fee that was charged to each soldier to work on his car was more money for the arts program In the 1960s, the war in Vietnam was a new challenge for the Army Crafts Program. The program had three levels of support; fixed facilities, mobile trailers designed as portable photo labs, and once again a "Kit Program" The Kit program newly originated at Headquarters Department of Army, and once again proved to be very poplar with soldiers.
A new Army Artist program was initiated in cooperation with the Office of Military History to document the war in Vietnam. Soldier-artist were identified and teams were formed to draw and paint the events of this combat. Exhibitions of these soldiers-artist workers were produced and toured throughout the USA.

In 1970, the original name of the program, "Arts and Crafts, was restored, In 1971, the "Arts and Crafts/Skilled Development Program" was established for budget presentations and construction projects. After the Vietnam demobilization, a new emphasis was placed on services to families and children of soldiers. To meet this new challenge in an environment of funding constraints the arts and crafts program began charging fees for classes. More part-time personnel were used to teach formal classes. Additionally, a need for more technical vocational skills training for military personnel was met by close coordination with Army Education Programs. Army "Arts and Crafts" directors worked with soldiers during "Project Transition" to develop civilian type skills for new careers in the public sector. The main challenge in the 1980âs and 1990s was, and is to become "self sustaining" Directors are finding more ways to generate increased revenue to pay for the programs. Programs have added services such as, picture framing, gallery sales, engraving and trophy sales to name a few. The recent Gulf War presented the Army with some familiar challenges such as personnel off duty time in staging areas. Department of Army volunteer civilian recreation specialist were sent to Saudi Arabia in January 1991, to organize recreation programs. "Arts and Crafts Kits" were sent to the soldiers. An Army Humor Cartoon Contest was conducted for the soldiers in the Gulf, and an arts and crafts center was set up to met soldiers interest.

The army arts and crafts program, no matter what it has been titled, has made some unique contributions for the military and our society in general. In todayâs terms it almost seemed a little ahead of its times. The army took the narrow definition of art and expanded it to activate and prepare human beings for many facets in life. In art academia today we engage in more in self-learning and more self-worth, because like the military it is looking to make better possibilities within shared communities and space. For example upon looking at the many classes the army taught it used painting and drawing in all forms of design; with fabric, household appliances, dishes, vases, houses, automobiles, landscapes, computers, copy machines, desks, industrial machines, weapons systems, air crafts, roads. It saw though applied technology; with photography, graphics, woodworking, sculpture, metal smiting, weaving and textiles, sewing, advertising, enameling, stain glass, pottery, charts, graphs, visual aides and formats for correspondence.

The army recognized the help of the arts into its everyday military application. They saw painting and drawing to improve visual skill, such as powers of observation, and coordination of eye, mind and hand required for artillery, infantry and all forms of marksmanship. Photography was basic to a communications and the precise laboratory techniques necessary in the Chemical Corps. Pottery, ceramics and lapidary materials lead to greater awareness and knowledge of terrain and environment. Jewelry and previous metals required small tools and detailed operations, demanding patients and concentration, which are requisites for dentist, surgeons, rifle repairmen and mechanics of auto, aviation , missile training. Woodworking has direct application to the Engineers.
The army further used the arts by giving soldiers an opportunity to acquire quality items and save money by doing it themselves. They created their own furniture, gifts and learn to repair just about anything in their lives.

On post art classes helped a soldier pursue college credits. On a spiritual or therapeutic level the arts helped in a universal and non-verbal language (a picture is worth a thousand words.) It offered food for the human psyche, an element of morale that allows for individual expression though creative freedom. The arts benefited the soldiers with physical and mental therapy activating motor skill development, stress reduction. Art activities promoted self-reliance and self-esteem. This became the basis for the Morale program. And finally because of the military arts we have visual documents of recorded history.

What would the world be like today if this generally unknown program had not existed? Was it the armyâs intent to made the arts a basic part of themselves so as to cultivate wisdom while strengthening the judgment and decision making powers of an individual. To truly quantify the overall impact of the Armyâs Arts and Crafts program is impossible. However millions of solider and citizens have been directly and indirectly exposed to arts and crafts because it existed in the army. The knowledge that came from so many creating, enjoying, questioning and talking about the arts brings honor to the educational process. In the stages of creative experience we often honor out past, acknowledge the realities of the present, and imagine our futures.

________________________________________________________________________ Work Cited:
Janice A. Osthus, Program Manager Army Art & Crafts, "US Army Art and Crafts", 1-4,1992

Data Provided by: the Center for Military History, 230 Park Ave., New York, NY., USA