Therapeutic Handicrafts
In 1920, Dryad began printing booklets and leaflets for craft education. They formed a practical encyclopaedia with instructions on around 40 craft techniques, including basket-making, painting decoration on wooden samples, pyrography, and leatherwork. They were written for schoolteachers and amateurs who wanted to develop their crafts independently at home.
Soldiers engaged in occupational therapy at Leicester’s 5th Northern General Hospital, now the Fielding Johnson Building, University of Leicester. Credit: The University of Leicester’s Archives and Special Collections.
In the leaflet Craft Work – A Medicine, Peach linked handicrafts with occupational therapy,
“One had heard and seen a good deal of what these small occupations had done for the wounded during the war, in fact the Dryad Handicrafts largely grew out of some help that was given in a voluntary way in this direction, but until then I had not realised the serious value of handicraft, especially for the neurotic”.
Whilst Dryad’s leaflets and booklets focused on instructing readers on techniques, they also included photographs of objects in the Dryad Handicrafts collection as examples of good craftwork from around the world. The booklet Raffia Work. Winding, Plaiting, Weaving, Canvas Work, Coiled Basketry, Decorative Flowers, for instance, included photographs of African baskets and mats with geometric patterns.