Clifford W. Ashley was an artist who studied under the influential illustrator Howard Pyle, painted expressive maritime scenes, and published histories of whaling related to the waterfront of his hometown, New Bedford, Massachusetts. Yet he’s best remembered for a wildly popular book on knots.
“It’s the most famous knot book ever created, and one of the most important ones because he corrected a lot of historical errors,” Christina Connett, chief curator at the New Bedford Whaling Museum (NBWM), told Hyperallergic. The museum is currently exhibiting Thou Shalt Knot: Clifford W. Ashley, based on Ashley’s collection of knots that was donated by his daughters Phoebe Chardon and Jane Ashley in 2016. NBWM has a large collection of Ashley’s paintings, which complement these recently acquired materials, demonstrating the late artist’s passion for maritime subjects where ship rigging and shipboard tying were frequently present.
The Ashley Book of Knots, first published in 1944 and still in print, contains nearly 7,000 illustrations of over 3,000 knots, and everyone from author Annie Proulx to tightrope artist Philippe Petit (who contributed to the exhibition catalogue) has cited it as an inspiration. Many of the knots that Ashley used as models for his book illustrations were part of the acquired collection. The book, for which Ashley dedicated over a decade of research, writing, and illustration, remains an essential guide to knot tying, and is also a historical archive of their uses.
Adafruit publishes a wide range of writing and video content, including interviews and reporting on the maker market and the wider technology world. Our standards page is intended as a guide to best practices that Adafruit uses, as well as an outline of the ethical standards Adafruit aspires to. While Adafruit is not an independent journalistic institution, Adafruit strives to be a fair, informative, and positive voice within the community – check it out here: adafruit.com/editorialstandards
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7:30pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat and our Discord!
