Appalachia Wood Findings

I found many interesting pieces, crafts, and animals of course, on our trip to the Museum of Appalachia.  Focusing on solely wood crafts was not difficult to do because there were still many things to look at that were only out of wood material.  These are a few of my findings:

There were many fiddles, banjos, violins, and other instruments from the Appalachian culture.  I learned that music was very important to their culture - especially bluegrass music.  In fact, when going to eat, there were many pictures of famous singers and band members that had passed through that museum.

Also, there were many pieces of wood utensils, bowls, and plates that were used in the Appalachian culture.  A major reason for this was because the wood was very easy to carve and is aesthetically pleasing.

Lastly, I found this piece to be quite interesting.  It is a wheel chair, but not the kind of wheelchair that we picture today.  It is literally a dining chair that someone attached wooden wheels to in order to function.  It is very interesting how it was not originally designed to be a wheelchair.

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. 

Museum of Appalachian findings

"Large Indian family water bottle in extremely good condition. It was acquired from Gene Purcell who witnessed its finding at Crumps Landing in Hardin Co. on the Tenn. River in West Tenn. near the bloody Civil War battle of Shiloh. It was found by Bert Robbins" 

Within the Indian family, one of the women probably made this. It was found in west Tennessee by Bert Robbins. It is made out of clay, and I assume it is handmade. The water bottle was used as exactly that, a water bottle, to transport water and drink from it. This object is unique to Appalachia because it was an East Tennessee Indian family. 

Museum of Appalachia

John Rice Irwin with the Big Brown Jug

I wasn't sure if this ceramic pot was intended to be a joke or not, but I still thought it was fascinating. It is an impressive size, especially for a jug.  Most of the ceramics at the museum were pots and jugs but there were a few figurines. I found an example of a camp jug that made fun of hillbillies.

Most of the ceramic and glass work was hand crafted but none of them said who made them.

Appalachian Wood

The Mouth Bow:

Alex Stewart was the maker of these mouth bows. Alex was born and raised in Hancock County, Tennessee and is now about 67 years old. Alex Stewart was a farmer and also big into "coopering" woodwork. He made just about anything anyone asked for out of wood, one of these was the mouth bow. The mouth bow is one of the oldest musical instruments around, it is made with the same concept as a hunting bow but the ends are more tapered off rather than curved. The strings used on these bows were normally twine, leather, or gut. The mouth bow was a musical instrument said to be used back even to when the cave drawings were crafted. These particular mouth bows were unique to Appalachia in the sense that it was locally made by a great wood crafter of that time and even today. It really helps understand the Appalachian culture in the way it was made, that almost all of their stuff was crafted in wood and they were creative in making new types of instruments, it gives you the sense of what their entertainment was.

 In this photo, Alex Stewart is playing one of his hand made mouth bows.