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Bybee Pottery, Waco, Madison County. Interview recorded August 1981. Walter Lee Cornelison is a fifth-generation potter, turning wares in Bybee Pottery - Kentucky’s sole surviving traditional pottery...Pottery
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.
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Audio
Connor Pottery, Ashland, Benton County. Interview recorded in October 1981. Connor was born in Wickliffe, Kentucky, the son of journeyman potter Charles Tipton Connor. C. T. Connor established a...Audio
Connor Pottery, Ashland, Benton County. Interview recorded in October 1981. Connor was born in Wickliffe, Kentucky, the son of journeyman potter Charles Tipton Connor. C. T. Connor established a...Photo
Connor was born in Wickliffe, Kentucky, the son of journeyman potter Charles Tipton Connor. C. T. Connor established a pottery in Ashland, Mississippi in 1940, less than twenty miles from the...Audio
Cinda Baldwin discusses Collin Rhodes' family history and pottery factory.. Collin Rhodes (1811-1881) owned or co-owned a number of pottery factories including Pottersville, Phoenix Factory, and...Photo
Collin Rhodes (1811-1881) owned or co-owned a number of pottery factories including Pottersville, Phoenix Factory, and finally the Collin Rhodes Factory (ca. 1843) in Edgefield during the early to mid...Audio
The Phoenix Stone Ware Factory was established ca. 1840 by Collin Rhodes and his partner Robert Mathis. Mathis and Rhodes were the former co-owners of the Pottersville factory when they opened the...Photo
The Phoenix Stone Ware Factory was established ca. 1840 by Collin Rhodes and his partner Robert Mathis. Mathis and Rhodes were the former co-owners of the Pottersville factory when they opened the...Photo
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...