Frederick Meyer
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Frederick Heinrich Wilhelm Meyer (November 6, 1872 – January 6, 1961), was a German-born American designer, academic administrator, and art educator, who was prominent in the
Arts and Crafts Movement The Arts and Crafts movement was an international trend in the decorative and fine arts that developed earliest and most fully in the British Isles and subsequently spread across the British Empire and to the rest of Europe and America. Initiat ...
. He was a long-time resident of the
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; and the founding president of the School of the California Guild of Arts and Crafts (now California College of the Arts).


Early years

Meyer was born on November 6, 1872, near
Hamelin Hameln ( ; ) is a town on the river Weser in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Hameln-Pyrmont and has a population of roughly 57,000. Hamelin is best known for the tale of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. History Hameln ...
, German Empire (now Lower Saxony, Germany), into a family whose occupations were dominated by furniture craftsmen and weavers. He apprenticed as a cabinetmaker before he immigrated in 1888 to
Fresno, California Fresno (; ) is a city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County, California, Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley (California), Central Valley region. It covers a ...
, where he worked in a large commercial nursery. In about 1890, he enrolled at the Cincinnati Technical School, and two years later transferred to the
Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art The Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art (PMSIA), also referred to as the School of Applied Art, was a museum and teaching institution which later split into the Philadelphia Museum of Art and University of the Arts. It was chartered b ...
. On November 7, 1893, he became a naturalized citizen of the United States of America. In the spring of 1895 he traveled to Germany, completed the program at the Royal Academy of Berlin for Fine Arts and Mechanical Sciences (also known as the
Prussian Academy of Arts The Prussian Academy of Arts () was a state arts academy first established in 1694 by prince-elector Frederick III of Electorate of Brandenburg, Brandenburg in Berlin, in personal union Duke Frederick I of Prussia, and later king in Kingdom of ...
), and returned to the Pennsylvania Museum and School, where he was awarded a master's degree. An online facsimile of the entire text of Vol. 1 is posted on the Traditional Fine Arts Organization website ().


Career

Between 1898 and 1902 Meyer held the post of Supervisor of Art for the public schools in
Stockton, California Stockton is a city in and the county seat of San Joaquin County, California, San Joaquin County in the Central Valley (California), Central Valley of the U.S. state of California. It is the most populous city in the county, the List of municipal ...
. In 1900, he hired as assistant art supervisor William S. Rice, whom he had met in Pennsylvania; Rice was promoted to Meyer's job in 1902. Meyer and his wife relocated to
Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Anglo-Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland, Cali ...
, in fall of 1902, where he was hired as an “Instructor of Descriptive Geometry” (i.e. mechanical drawing) at the
University of California The University of California (UC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university, research university system in the U.S. state of California. Headquartered in Oakland, California, Oakland, the system is co ...
. A year later was appointed Professor of Applied Arts and head of the Department of Industrial Design at San Francisco's
Mark Hopkins Institute of Art San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) was a Private college, private art school, college of contemporary art in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1871, SFAI was one of the oldest art schools in the United States and the oldest west of the Mis ...
, which was administered by U.C. Berkeley. In addition, he opened the Craftsman's Shop in San Francisco and designed custom furniture for prestigious clients, including the:
Phoebe Hearst Phoebe Elizabeth Apperson Hearst (December 3, 1842 – April 13, 1919) was an American philanthropist, feminist and suffragist. Hearst was the founder of the University of California Museum of Anthropology, now called the Phoebe A. Hearst Mu ...
estate at Wyntoon (in association with Bernard Maybeck), California Building at the 1904
Louisiana Purchase Exposition The Louisiana Purchase Exposition, informally known as the St. Louis World's Fair, was an World's fair, international exposition held in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri, United States, from April 30 to December 1, 1904. Local, state, and federa ...
in St. Louis, Faculty Club at U.C. Berkeley, and Sequoia Club in San Francisco. In October 1905 he was elected president of the California Guild of Arts and Crafts and his wife became its treasurer; they held both positions for two years. After the devastating San Francisco earthquake and fire in April 1906, which destroyed the Mark Hopkins Institute, he briefly traveled to Europe.


Founding of California Guild of Arts and Crafts

Meyer expressed his dream of a school that would fuse the practical and ideal goals of craftsmen, designers, and artists, integrated into both theory and practice. Meyer founded the School of the California Guild of Arts and Crafts in June 1907 with its first location in the Studio Building, one block from the U.C. Berkeley campus. He had just $45 USD in cash, access to three classrooms and 43 students. The following year his school was renamed the California School of Arts and Crafts (CSAC) and briefly relocated to the space over a billiard parlor. In 1910, to accommodate the ever-expanding student body, the CSCA took over the campus of the former Berkeley High School building (or Commercial High School) at 2119 Allston Way (at Grove Street, now Martin Luther King Way), where they remained until their move in 1923–1924 to a larger facility in Oakland on Broadway. The school was renamed the California College of Arts and Crafts (CCAC) in 1936. The school's name was changed for a fourth time in 2003 to the
California College of the Arts The California College of the Arts (CCA) is a private art school in San Francisco, California. It was founded in Berkeley, California in 1907 and moved to a historic estate in Oakland, California in 1922. In 1996, it opened a second campus in ...
(CCA). The school developed an international reputation because of Meyer's high standards and the renowned faculty that he hired, including Xavier Martinez, William S. Rice, Perham Wilhelm Nahl, Beniamino Bufano,
Isabelle Clark Percy West Isabelle Clark Percy West (née Percy; 1882 – 1976) was an American painter, printmaker, designer, and educator. She was known for landscape paintings, botanical paintings, and early etchings of the Pacific Coast. She was part of the founding fa ...
, and Hamilton A. Wolf. Meyer became a popular figure though his many public lectures and sponsorship of exhibitions and charities. Meyer led the college until his retirement in 1944, when he was named president emeritus. He was succeeded as president by
Spencer Macky Eric Spencer Macky, also known simply as Spencer Macky (1880–1958) was a New Zealand-born American painter, Intaglio (printmaking), intaglio printmaker, academic administrator, and educator. He was president of the California College of Arts an ...
.


Personal life

In Stockton, California, Meyer met and married in June 1902, Laetitia Summerville from Boston. The couple relocated that fall to
Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Anglo-Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland, Cali ...
. Meyer died at the age of 88, on January 6, 1961, in Oakland.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Meyer, Frederick 1872 births 1961 deaths German furniture designers American furniture designers American art educators Emigrants from the German Empire to the United States People from Hamelin Presidents of California College of the Arts San Francisco Art Institute faculty University of the Arts (Philadelphia) alumni Heads of universities and colleges in the United States