By the late 1700’s, manufactured products of the Industrial Revolution were replacing handcrafted items, but in Berea and other pockets of Central Appalachia, handicraft traditions continued. The celebration of traditional loomed weavings by Berea College’s third President, Dr. William Frost, is considered the foundation of the revival of Appalachian handicrafts. When Frost arrived from Oberlin, Ohio in 1892, he was immediately impressed by finely woven coverlets he saw in Berea and the surrounding counties. His enthusiasm for the local weaving and craft skills inspired him to help preserve this handiwork and develop new products and markets for the mountain weavers. Frost’s early exchanges of coverlets bartered for larnin’ set the standard for a century-long tradition at Berea College of tuition-free education for academically promising students who work to earn money for room and board. Frost’s preservation and promotion of handicrafts, and his establishment of Berea College’s earning while learning Fireside Industries, helped ignite similar efforts at North Carolina’s Biltmore Estate, the Penland School of Craft and the Southern Highland Craft Guild. In 1896 Berea hosted its first craft fair, the Homespun Fair, coinciding with the college commencement and offering students and community craftsmen the then-unheard-of opportunity to sell their wares to an interested public. That tradition lived on in Berea and was replicated in nearly every part of the country, giving those who upheld handcrafted traditions occasions to sell their products and demonstrate their talents. The success of Berea College’s Fireside Industries also encouraged area entrepreneurs to market handcrafted wares broadly, and regional enterprises such as Churchill Weavers and Bybee Pottery found success beyond Appalachia as early as the 1920’s. Since the first crafts renaissance in the late 1800’s, hand-wrought crafts in Berea have survived setbacks, enjoyed resurgences, and brought international recognition to local artists and craftspeople, sustaining Berea’s place as a leading center of Kentucky folk arts and crafts.