I grew up thinking that that Tramp Art was made by hoboes who traveled the US by train and used found objects to create their “traveling” art. Contrary to my young belief, tramp art was mostly made in home based settings or work studios and made by some women and children but mostly by men of all occupations, not typically by tramps or hoboes.
Popular between 1870 and the 1940’s, Tramp Art is a woodworking style in which small pieces of wood, primarily from discarded cigar boxes and shipping crates, are whittled, notched, and assembled into layers with geometric patterns. These chip-carved and layered pieces were made into boxes, frames, doll houses, tables, dressers, and maybe even used as added embellishment to a lifesize house in Bernal Heights. You decide.
