Book Covers

Sarah Orne Jewett’s dear friend Sarah Wyman Whitman, painter, book cover designer, and stained-glass artist, designed Jewett’s book covers.

Whitman began studying painting with noted artist William Morrison Hunt, and then in Paris. She embraced the Arts and Crafts movement and was a founding member of the Boston Arts and Crafts Society (1897).

At its core, the Arts and Crafts movement was a reaction against industrialization. The movement rejected mass production, finding it dehumanizing, and instead prized handcrafting and the individual artist. The movement placed attention on beauty in functional, everyday objects and so focused more on the decorative arts such as ceramics, handmade textiles, furniture, jewelry, and books than on painting and sculpture.

Sarah Wyman Whitman created book covers simple in design and with a handcrafted look.