Museum of Appalachia

 

Pottery made by the Eli LeFever Family

Butter churning devices made out of pottery

A collection of butter churners

All of the pottery that I observed at The Musuem of Appalachia seemed to have a domestic purpose. I saw many butter churning pottery, which was used to create butter in a large pottery jug. There were also plenty of bowls and plates that were used for kitchen supplies, and large jugs used to carry and store water in. Pottery has been around for many years, and is an applied art that can be both useful and artistic. It is also still used for similar purposes nowadays than how it was used back in the Appalachian time period. At the Museum of Appalachia I specifically was intrigued by the Eli Le Fever family, because I found that it showed a lot about Appalachian culture that a family unit produced a collection of functioning pottery. Family values and traditions are extremely valued in Appalachian culture, and it shows this tradition through the pottery collection done by a family unit. The  East Tennessee region the Le Fever family settled in in the 1870's was not the most wealthy region, forcing many Appalachian families in this region to make due with their own resources to create tools to help them survive. The essential tools for the kitchen required the Le Fever family to produce their own tools, which brought about the creation of pottery. The process of doing so was long, but significantly hand crafted. They would take dry clay and mix it with water, to form a wet clay. Then they would mold and coil the clay to the form they wanted to create. The craftsmanship that went into creating these pieces is significant because the deeply carved vessels, and smoothed out edges take much time and skill to be completed with perfection. A piece that seemed to be extremely prevelent in the musuem was the butter churner. This piece was also important to Appalachian families because it was a device that converted cream into butter, which butter is an essential ingredient to many Appalachian dishes. Learning that a family created artwork together to survive says a lot about Appalachian culture, because it shows that families worked together to be successful, and that they took care of each other even when the times were tough.