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.

Rich Wiliams Photos | Digital Traditions
Rich Wiliams Photos | Digital Traditions

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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...
Robert Ferguson Photos | Digital Traditions
Robert Ferguson Photos | Digital Traditions

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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...
Stephen Ferrell Photos | Digital Traditions
Stephen Ferrell Photos | Digital Traditions

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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...
Thomas Chandler Photos | Digital Traditions
Thomas Chandler Photos | Digital Traditions

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Thomas Chandler (1810-1854) was perhaps the most skillful potter to work in Edgefield. Born in Drummondtown, Virginia, he is believed to have been a descendant of John Chandler of Fulham, England, who...
Walter Lee Cornelison Photos | Digital Traditions
Walter Lee Cornelison Photos | Digital Traditions

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Walter Lee Cornelison is a fifth-generation potter, turning wares in Bybee Pottery - Kentucky’s sole surviving traditional pottery. Cornelison turns on a wheel set up inside the old log pot shop while...