Edward Moulthrop

Born in Cleveland, Edward Moulthrop earned a B.A. degree in architecture in 1939 at Case Institute of Technology and an M.F.A. at Princeton University in 1941.

Trained as an architect, Moulthrop is a self-taught woodturner and a major figure in the contemporary woodturning movement in America. He creates enormous architectonic vessels made of woods indigenous to the southeastern region of the country, where he lives and works. He particularly favors rotted wood, which, when turned, reveals striations on the vessel's surface. To produce his vessels, Moulthrop uses mammoth cutting tools of his own design, a large-scale lathe he also made, and polyethylene glycol.

Moulthrop has received many awards, including two medals from the American Institute of Architects in 1978 and 1980 and the Georgia Governor's Award in the Arts in 1981.

Kenneth R. Trapp and Howard Risatti Skilled Work: American Craft in the Renwick Gallery (Washington, D.C.: National Museum of American Art with the Smithsonian Institution Press, 1998)