Anna Templeton (1916-1995)
26. Further along Duckworth Street, at #278 is the Anna Templeton Centre for Craft, Art and Design.
Anna Catherine Templeton was born in St. John's, the second eldest in the business family of R.A. Templeton. She was educated at Prince of Wales College and earned a pre-science degree at Memorial College before studying Home Economics at MacDonald College in Montreal.
In 1938, Anna returned home to become a Field Worker, and then Organizing Secretary of the Jubilee Guilds of Newfoundland and Labrador. With this job, she began a lifelong involvement with craft development and women's work in the province. She often traveled the province alone, teaching other women weaving, sewing or domestic science. This was an unusual task for an urban, single, young woman of the upper middle class in the 1930s and 1940s. It provided a new variation on the traditional female teaching role available to young single women at the time.
Anna's first trip as a Field Worker for the Guilds was eventful. It lasted from August to December 1938 as she met with many Guild branches around Green Bay. Wanting to be in St. John's for Christmas, she travelled from Green Bay, several hundred kilometers to the west of town. She was carried by a mail dog team, then boat, snowmobile and finally train into town. When she arrived after several days of travel, and went into the office, she was given the afternoon off.
As Organizing Secretary, Anna set up weaving workshops, trained women field workers, developed yearly programs for Guild branches, and arranged for the sale of rural women's hand work, knitting and weaving in particular, and so provided some income for rural communities.
In 1965, Anna became supervisor of the Craft Training Division of the Department of Education. Her exceptional contribution to craft education provided the foundation for contemporary efforts in craft development. She was instrumental in forming the Craft Council of NL, the St. John's Embroiders Guild, the NL Home Economics Association, and the Newfoundland and Labrador Branch of the Canadian Consumers Association, among others.
In 1994, the new Textile and Apparel Design Program of the College of the North Atlantic was established. The Anna Templeton Centre for Craft, Art and Design was named in her honour. It continues the tradition of innovation and creativity so loved by Anna Templeton.
In recognition of her untiring inspiration of rural women to learn new skills and knowledge, Anna was awarded the Centennial Medal in 1967, and an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Memorial University in 1985
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