Practicing Manual Crafts

President McIntosh operating steam shovel during groundbreaking for Helen Reid Hall, August 22, 1960. Credit: Jack Mitchell / Barnard College Archives


In my last post, I included a suggestion that Robert Greenleaf borrowed from Dr. Millicent McIntosh, the former president of Barnard College, on the importance of “Developing excellence in a manual craft.” as a way of ensuring diversity in life. Chris posted a question in response to the post, “any idea what examples of manual craft that Macintosh/Greenleaf were suggesting?”

Here are some possible answers to the question from her January 5, 2001 obituary that appeared in the New York Times. (For an interesting read on the life of a servant leader, I would encourage you to read Dr. McIntosh’s obituary.)

As a college president, she swept her own vestibule and weeded her own garden.

After her retirement in 1962, she and her husband moved to their farm in Tyringham, Mass.

She had five brothers and sisters, and all were taught to mend and darn and market and cook.

And of course, operating a steam shovel can also be considered a manual craft. I think the point is that now and then we create something with our hands, that we do some physical work; and that we exercise our body’s, not just our minds.