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{{for|the surname|Roycroft (surname)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2023}}
{{more footnotes needed|date=February 2016}}
{{Infobox NRHP
| name = Roycroft Campus
| nrhp_type = nhl
| image = Roycroft Copper Shop.jpg
| caption = The Copper Shop, first building of the Roycroft Campus to be restored
| location = Main and South Grove St., [[East Aurora, New York]]
| nearest_city = [[Buffalo, New York|Buffalo]]
| coordinates = {{coord|42|46|04|N|78|37|04|W|display=inline,title}}
| area = 
| built = 1895
| architect = 
| architecture = 
| designated_nrhp_type = February 26, 1986<ref name="nhlsum">{{cite web|url=http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=1460&ResourceType=District|title=Roycroft Campus|date=2007-09-18|work=National Historic Landmark summary listing|publisher=National Park Service|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090911042746/http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=1460&ResourceType=District|archive-date=2009-09-11}}</ref>
| added = November 8, 1974<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|2007a}}</ref>
| visitation_num = 
| visitation_year = 
| refnum = 74001236
| mpsub = 
}}
'''Roycroft''' was a reformist community of [[craft]] workers and artists which formed part of the [[Arts and Crafts movement]] in the United States. [[Elbert Hubbard]] founded the community in 1895, in the village of [[East Aurora, New York]], near [[Buffalo, New York|Buffalo]]. Participants were known as '''Roycrofters'''. The work and philosophy of the group, often referred to as the '''Roycroft movement''', had a strong influence on the development of American architecture and design in the early 20th century.

==History==
[[Image:Roycroft printing press.jpg|left|thumb|[[Golding Pearl]] letterpress used by the Roycrofters]]
The name "Roycroft" was chosen after the printers, Samuel and Thomas Roycroft, who made books in [[London]] from about 1650–1690. The word ''roycroft'' had a special significance to Elbert Hubbard. Hubbard believed "''roycroft"'' meant "''king's craft"'' in French.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Elbert G. Hubbard: Roycroft Arts and Crafts by John H. Martin |url=https://www.crookedlakereview.com/books/saints_sinners/martin15.html |access-date=2022-04-03 |website=www.crookedlakereview.com}}</ref> In [[guild]]s of early modern Europe, king's craftsmen were guild members who had achieved a high degree of skill and therefore made things for the King. The Roycroft insignia was borrowed from the monk [[Cassiodorus]], a 13th-century bookbinder and illuminator.

Elbert Hubbard had been influenced by the ideas of [[William Morris]] on a visit to England.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Koch |first=Robert |date=January 1967 |title=Elbert Hubbard's Roycrofters as Artist-Craftsmen |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/495764 |journal=Winterthur Portfolio |volume=3 |pages=67–82 |doi=10.1086/495764 |s2cid=162706305 |issn=0084-0416|url-access=subscription }}</ref> He was unable to find a publisher for his book ''Little Journeys'', so inspired by Morris's [[Kelmscott Press]], decided to set up his own [[private press]] to print the book himself, founding '''Roycroft Press'''.

His championing of the Arts and Crafts approach attracted a number of visiting craftspeople to East Aurora, and they formed a community of printers, furniture makers, metalsmiths, leathersmiths, and bookbinders. A quotation from [[John Ruskin]] formed the Roycroft "creed":

<blockquote>A belief in working with the head, hand and heart and mixing enough play with the work so that every task is pleasurable and makes for health and happiness.</blockquote>

The inspirational leadership of Hubbard attracted a group of almost 500 people by 1910, and millions more knew of him through his essay ''[[A Message to Garcia]]''.
[[File:A door of the Chapel, Roycroft Campus.jpg|thumb|A door of the Chapel (not a religious building but a guild hall)]]
The Roycroft Press is also credited for publishing partner publications, such as Carl Lothar Bredemeier's ''The Buffalo Magazine for Arts'' in 1920.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Publications, Volume 24|publisher=Buffalo Historical Society|year=1920|location=Buffalo, NY|pages=384}}</ref>

In 1915 Hubbard and his wife, noted [[suffragist]] [[Alice Moore Hubbard]], died in the sinking of [[RMS Lusitania|RMS ''Lusitania'']], and the Roycroft community went into a gradual decline. Following Elbert's death, his son Bert took over the business. In attempts to keep his father's business afloat, Bert proposed selling Roycroft's furniture through major retailers. Sears & Roebuck eventually agreed to carry the furniture, but this was only a short lived success.<ref name="Roycroft_Hubbard">{{cite web |url=http://roycroft.org/elbert-hubbard.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140729162105/http://roycroft.org/elbert-hubbard.html |title=Elbert Hubbard - The Man. |website=Roycroft.org |archive-date=July 29, 2014 |access-date=December 17, 2015}}</ref>

Fourteen original Roycroft buildings are located in the area of South Grove and Main Street in East Aurora. Known as the "Roycroft Campus", this rare survival of an [[art colony]] was awarded [[National Historic Landmark]] status in 1986.<ref name="nhlsum"/><ref name="nrhpinv">{{cite web|url={{NHLS url|id=74001236}} |title="Roycroft Campus", July 1985, by Carolyn Pitts (National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination)|format=pdf|date=July 1985|publisher=National Park Service}}</ref><ref name="nrhpphotos">{{cite web|url={{NHLS url|id=74001236|photos=y}} |title=Roycroft Campus--Accompanying 3 photos, exterior, from 1973. (National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination)|format=pdf|date=July 1985|publisher=National Park Service}}</ref>

The Elbert Hubbard Roycroft Museum, housed in the [[George and Gladys Scheidemantel House]], in [[East Aurora, New York|East Aurora]] is the main collection and research centre for the work of the Roycrofters.

===Roycroft Inn===
[[File:Roycroft Inn, Lobby bar, Roycroft Campus.jpg|thumb|Roycroft Inn, Lobby bar, Roycroft Campus]]
Part of the Roycroft Campus, the Inn is a hotel with a restaurant and lobby bar across the street from the primary buildings. It first opened for visitors in 1905 and in 1986, as part of the Roycroft Campus, became a [[National Historic Landmark]]. A nine year restoration was completed in 1995, with funding from the Margaret L. Wendt Foundation; the total cost was $8 million.<ref>{{Cite web |last=SCHULMAN |first=JAMES HEANEY AND PAUL CARROLL, PAUL CARROLL, PAUL CARROLL AND GENE WARNER, PAUL CARROLL AND SUSAN |title=RESTORED ROYCROFT INN TO REOPEN E. AURORA LANDMARK REBORN IN $8 MILLION RENOVATION |url=https://buffalonews.com/news/restored-roycroft-inn-to-reopen-e-aurora-landmark-reborn-in-8-million-renovation/article_bddc59c5-6179-5967-994d-c869f3ec5423.html |access-date=2022-04-03 |website=Buffalo News |date=April 30, 1995 |language=en}}</ref> At that time, the facility re-opened. The Salon area contains restored murals by Roycroft artist [[Alexis Jean Fournier]].<ref>https://roycroftinn.com/our-history/, Our History</ref>

==Gallery==
<gallery mode="packed" heights="170">
Image:Visitor Center, Roycroft Campus, East Aurora, NY.jpg|Visitor Center, June 2019
Image:Aurora Town Hall - former Roycroft Chapel - Dec 2008 - 01.jpg|Front of the Chapel
Image:Roycroftrestaurant.JPG|Roycroft Inn
Image:Aurora Town Hall - former Roycroft Chapel - Dec 2008 - 02.jpg|Side of the Chapel
Image:RoycroftCrest.jpg|The Roycroft Renaissance Logo
Image:RoycroftCampusWelcome.jpg|Roycroft Campus welcome sign from the 1990s
Image:RoycroftSign.JPG|Sign about Elbert Hubbard
Image:Roycroftsign2.jpg|Sign with Roycroft crest and lettering
Image:Portrait of Elbert Hubbard, Roycroft Campus Visitor Center.jpg|Portrait of Elbert Hubbard at the Visitor Center
</gallery>

==Famous Roycrofters==
*Arthur H. Cole (1899–?), coppersmith
*[[Jerome Connor]] (1874–1943), sculptor of Elbert Hubbard statue, North Wind on the Roycroft Chapel, and others.
*[[William Wallace Denslow]] (1856–1915), illustrator of ''[[The Wonderful Wizard of Oz]]''.
*[[Alexis Jean Fournier]] (1865–1948), American painter, including 20 murals at the Roycroft Inn.
*[[Dard Hunter|William Joseph "Dard" Hunter]] (1883–1966), American authority on making paper by hand, as well as printing using handmade type.  He published a number of books on traditional, pre-industrial, techniques for making paper.
*Walter Jennings, coppersmith and jeweler
*Karl Kipp (1882–1954), worked in the bindery in 1908 and later established the Roycroft Copper Shop.
*Fredrick Kranz, created find leather goods.
*Victor Toothaker (1882–1932), coppersmith
*Samuel Warner (1871–1947), book designer, artist and illustrator for many Roycroft books.

==See also==
* [[American craft]]
* [[Arden, Delaware]]
* [[Byrdcliffe Colony]] 
* [[Elbert Hubbard]]
* [[Frank Lloyd Wright]]
* [[Gustav Stickley]]
* [[Rose Valley, Pennsylvania]]
* [[Roy Croft]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
*{{cite journal |last=Beyer |first=Rachael A. |title='You must make it the fashion:' selling utopia in Roycroft and Arden, 1895-1915 |website=Iowa State University Digital Repository |date=2013-06-21 |url=https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/etd/13025 |access-date=2018-03-20 |oclc=880379261}}
* Cathers, David M. (1981) ''Furniture of the American Arts and Crafts Movement: Stickley and Roycroft Mission Oak'' New American Library, New York, {{ISBN|0-453-00397-4}}
* Champney, Freeman (1968) ''Art & glory; the story of Elbert Hubbard'' Crown Publishers, New York, [http://worldcat.org/oclc/274494 OCLC 274494]
* Hamilton, Charles Franklin (1973) ''As Bees in Honey Drown: Elbert Hubbard and the Roycrofters'' A.S. Barnes, South Brunswick, {{ISBN|0-498-01052-X}}
* Rust, Robert ''et al.'' (2000) ''The Roycroft Campus'' (''Images of America'' series) Arcadia Publishing, Charleston, SC, {{ISBN|0-7524-1344-9}}
* Turgeon, Kitty and Rust, Robert (1998) ''The Arts and Crafts Home'' Friedman/Fairfax Publishers, New York, {{ISBN|1-56799-455-5}}
* Via, Marie and Searl, Marjorie (eds.) (1994) ''Head, Heart, and Hand: Elbert Hubbard and the Roycrofters'' University of Rochester Press, Rochester, N.Y., {{ISBN|1-878822-43-8}}

==External links==
{{commons category|Roycroft}}
* [http://www.roycroftcampuscorporation.com Roycroft Organization]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070312042831/http://www.roycroftinn.com/inn/inn_history.htm Roycroft Inn, East Aurora]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20160319104038/http://www.stickleyera.info/AmericanMakersR-Ste.htm Roycroft shop marks and related historical furniture maker details]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20161109075520/http://www.arts-crafts.com/archive/hdavis.shtml The Roycroft Community 1894–1938 by Hilary Davis]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20101124213821/http://www.arts-crafts.com/archive/ehubbard.shtml The Arts & Crafts Movement: People: Elbert Hubbard]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070210063221/http://freenet.buffalo.edu/bah/a/archsty/a-c/roy/hp/index.html The Roycroft Campus]
* [http://www.ralaweb.com Roycrofters At Large Association]
*[http://findingaid.winterthur.org/html/HTML_Finding_Aids/COL0254.htm The Winterthur Library]  Overview of an archival collection on the Roycrofters
*Roycrofters Collection: Books published at the Roycrofter colony founded by Elbert Hubbard, (97 items). From the [https://www.loc.gov/rr/rarebook/ Rare Book and Special Collections Division at the Library of Congress]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20150707090929/http://www.trovestar.com/ac_antique/index.php?Manufacturer=Roycroft Furniture Items from the 1906 Roycroft Catalog ]

{{Registered Historic Places}}

[[Category:American artist groups and collectives]]
[[Category:19th-century art groups]]
[[Category:Arts and Crafts movement]]
[[Category:History of Buffalo, New York]]
[[Category:History of furniture]]
[[Category:American furniture makers]]
[[Category:1895 establishments in New York (state)]]
[[Category:Populated places established in 1895]]
[[Category:National Historic Landmarks in New York (state)]]
[[Category:Buildings and structures in Erie County, New York]]
[[Category:Tourist attractions in Erie County, New York]]
[[Category:National Register of Historic Places in Erie County, New York]]