This is the former site of the Society of Arts and Crafts, now located in the Seaport District. Women were active in the Society from its beginning. It was founded in 1897 as an expression of the Arts and Crafts Movement and is the oldest nonprofit crafts organization in America. It encourages the creation and collection of the work of craft artists and awards an annual Medal of Excellence in Craft. Painter and art patron Sarah Choate Sears was a member of the original incorporating committee and, along with Sarah Wyman Whitman, was an early officer. Women who were awarded the Medal of Excellence in the early years included: Mary Crease Sears, bookbinder; Josephine H. Shaw and Margaret Rogers, jewelers; Sister Magdalen, Winifred Crawford, and Beatrix Holmes, illuminators; Lydia Bush-Brown, batik dyer; and Louise Chrimes, needleworker.
