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South Carolina, with its rich clay deposits, is the home to two different, but very important ceramic traditions - Catawba earthenware and alkaline-glazed stoneware. Before European contact in the 16th century, the Catawba Nation controlled much of what is now South Carolina and most of the North Carolina Piedmont. This tradition has continued through elder potters sharing their knowledge and skills with younger generations. While their techniques remain ancient, they have adapted their forms to changing markets. Kinship and community were also important in the development and diffusion of the alkaline-glazed stoneware tradition during the nineteenth century. Using European and African forms and labor the Edgefield, South Carolina, potteries produced containers used primarily for food preservation and preparation. As some potters migrated west and to other areas in the southeast, they spread the alkaline-glazed tradition into Georgia, North Carolina, Alabama and Mississippi.

Content is provided by McKissick Museum, University of South Carolina.

For further information about any of the artists featured on Digital Traditions, send your questions and comments to hallagan@mailbox.sc.edu.

Resource Type
William & D.X. Gordy | Digital Traditions

Photo

Grades

  • Higher Education
William & D.X. Gordy | Digital Traditions
Episode 3
Son of Georgia potter W.T.B. Gordy (1877-1955), D.X. Gordy took over his father’s shop and gradually moved away from the traditional forms produced by earlier family potters. Gordy retained the...
Wayne Wilson | Digital Traditions

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Grades

  • Higher Education
Wayne Wilson | Digital Traditions
Episode 3
Wayne Wilson is the son of Hallie A. Wilson, who was trained in the pottery shop of Maryland Hewell and in the nearby Holcomb Pottery. In the 1950s, Hallie set up his own pottery shop in Lula, Georgia...
Verna Suggs Duncan Photos | Digital Traditions

Photo

Grades

  • Higher Education
Verna Suggs Duncan Photos | Digital Traditions
Episode 2
Verna Suggs Duncan assisted her father, William D. Suggs (1878-1945) at his pottery in the town of Smithville in eastern Mississippi. After she married Joseph Duncan (1909-1963), her husband learned...
Stewart Family Photos | Digital Traditions

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Grades

  • Higher Education
Stewart Family Photos | Digital Traditions
Episode 2
Carrie Stewart and Gerald Stewart, Louisville, Winston County. Interview recorded June 1981. Gerald Stewart came from a deeply rooted family potting tradition. By 1888, his father Homer Wade Stewart...
Stephen Ferrell Photos | Digital Traditions

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Grades

  • Higher Education
Stephen Ferrell Photos | Digital Traditions
Stephen Ferrell has been an advocate for the alkaline-glazed stoneware pottery tradition for almost forty years. Ferrell and his father, Terry, began collecting and studying alkaline-glazed stoneware...
Rosa & Winton Eugene Photos | Digital Traditions

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Grades

  • Higher Education
Rosa & Winton Eugene Photos | Digital Traditions
Episode 5
Eugene Pottery, Cowpens, Cherokee County. Interview recorded June 2007 as the Folklife Resource Center continues to document pottery traditions in South Carolina. Winton Eugene is a self-taught potter...
Experimenting with Glazes | Digital Traditions

Audio

Grades

  • Higher Education
Experimenting with Glazes | Digital Traditions
Episode 1
Eugene Pottery, Cowpens, Cherokee County. Interview recorded June 2007 as the Folklife Resource Center continues to document pottery traditions in South Carolina. Winton Eugene is a self-taught potter...
Applying Glazes | Digital Traditions

Audio

Grades

  • Higher Education
Applying Glazes | Digital Traditions
Episode 2
Eugene Pottery, Cowpens, Cherokee County. Interview recorded June 2007 as the Folklife Resource Center continues to document pottery traditions in South Carolina. Winton Eugene is a self-taught potter...
Is It Possible to Achieve Balance? | Digital Traditions

Audio

Grades

  • Higher Education
Is It Possible to Achieve Balance? | Digital Traditions
Episode 4
Eugene Pottery, Cowpens, Cherokee County. Interview recorded June 2007 as the Folklife Resource Center continues to document pottery traditions in South Carolina. Winton Eugene is a self-taught potter...
Robert Ferguson Photos | Digital Traditions

Photo

Grades

  • Higher Education
Robert Ferguson Photos | Digital Traditions
Robert F. Ferguson, Ferguson Pottery, Gillsville, Hall County. Interview recorded June 1981. The great-great grandson of Charles Ferguson, who moved to Georgia from Edgefield, South Carolina, Robert...
Rich Wiliams Photos | Digital Traditions

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Grades

  • Higher Education
Rich Wiliams Photos | Digital Traditions
Williams operated a pottery operation in the upcountry of South Carolina during the early 1900's. He may have been a descendant of Edgefield freed black potter Milage Williams or he may have learned...
Otis Norris Photos | Digital Traditions

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Grades

  • Higher Education
Otis Norris Photos | Digital Traditions
Episode 7
Otis Norris, Sandhills Pottery, McBee, Chesterfield County. Interview recorded May 2007. A Kershaw County native, Otis Norris has been turning pots at his current location in Chesterfield County since...
Norris on His Applied Snake Figures | Digital Traditions - Episode 3 Roots in Brown's Pottery | Digital Traditions

Audio

Grades

  • Higher Education
Roots in Brown's Pottery | Digital Traditions
Episode 1
Otis Norris, Sandhills Pottery, McBee, Chesterfield County. Interview recorded May 2007. A Kershaw County native, Otis Norris has been turning pots at his current location in Chesterfield County since...
Norris on His Applied Snake Figures | Digital Traditions - Episode 3 Norris on His Early Years | Digital Traditions

Audio

Grades

  • Higher Education
Norris on His Early Years | Digital Traditions
Episode 2
Otis Norris, Sandhills Pottery, McBee, Chesterfield County. Interview recorded May 2007. A Kershaw County native, Otis Norris has been turning pots at his current location in Chesterfield County since...
Norris on His Applied Snake Figures | Digital Traditions

Audio

Grades

  • Higher Education
Norris on His Applied Snake Figures | Digital Traditions
Episode 3
Otis Norris, Sandhills Pottery, McBee, Chesterfield County. Interview recorded May 2007. A Kershaw County native, Otis Norris has been turning pots at his current location in Chesterfield County since...