Over the past two weeks we've been recounting our favorite entries from the 70-year craft timeline in our August/September issue. Today's picks are from Alanna Nissen, the American Craft Council's office coordinator.

1991: Anne Wilson's Hair Work in the collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, extends the provocative possibilities of human hair in art. 
Call me creepy, but I love hair art. Everything from elaborate 19th century wreaths made of intricately twisted and braided strands to Janine Antoni's "Loving Care." As an artistic medium, human hair brings together themes of embodiment, loss and memory, beauty, and abjection. Since so much art made with hair, whether historical or contemporary, is derided as "morbid" it's nice to see it getting a little institutional love instead.

1949: Lloyd Reynolds begins teaching calligraphy at Reed College in Portland, OR, sparking a revival in the lettering arts. Among those influenced: Steve Jobs, who attended a class taught by Reynolds' handpicked successor in the early '70s and became convinced of the need for beautiful, readable fonts for the first Macintosh computers.
Sixty years later, calligraphy is experiencing another revival with new leaders like Betsy Dunlap practicing a non-traditional, but still gorgeous, version of the ancient craft. I have my own set of nibs and inks at home, but I can't seem to get much past chicken scratch.

1984: Rozsika Parker's book on embroidery, The Subversive Stitch, explores how women have used needlework to express outrage.
The Subversive Stitch is a personal favorite and inspired me to see needlework in a whole new light. A new edition was released in 2010 with an updated introduction that addresses the recent resurgence of interest in embroidery. Parker passed away last year, and her contributions to craft and art scholarship will be greatly missed.

1979: The Dinner Party, a monumental ceramic and fiber installation by feminist artist Judy Chicago depicting place settings for famous women in history and mythology, begins its high-profile international tour. Chicago's revisionist history hits a nerve and roils the critics.
What can be said about The Dinner Party that hasn't been said already? Love it or hate it, the research and work of the crew of talented women who created it still inspire awe three decades later. An incredible monument to countless generations of women, The Dinner Party is still capable of pulling in young feminist pilgrims like me. I'm so pleased that it has finally found a permanent home at the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum.

2007: "Radical Lace & Subversive Knitting" opens at New York's Museum of Arts and Design. The exhibition showcases a new generation of transgressive crafters.
Clearly there's a theme running through my favorites. There's nothing I love more than taking a traditional, domestic craft and turning it into a subversive political statement. I actually traveled all the way from Iowa to New York just to see this show, as well as a few other craft-oriented exhibitions - including my 1979 favorite, The Dinner Party - in what turned out to be one of the most fun (and thought-provoking) vacations I've ever taken.

2005: As the Internet connects crafters worldwide, Etsy launches online, revolutionizing the way makers market their work. Sales for 2011 are expected to exceed $400 million.
I'll be forever grateful to Etsy for making it possible for me to shop for craft from the comfort of my sweatpants at midnight, but forever resentful for the damage to my bank account.

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