Maude Welch

Maude Welch

Artisans

Cherokee pottery

Cherokee women

Handicraft

Manners and customs

Potters

This undated photograph was taken while Maude Welch was making pottery on the porch of her home. Maude French Welch (1894-1953) was born near Cooper's Creek in the Birdtown section of the Qualla Boundary. Her pottery was formed entirely by hand and made from local clay. She used a variety of small knives to shape her clay pots and polished them by burnishing with a smooth stone. The coloration on her pots comes from burning them with different types of wood. In the 1930s, she taught pottery at the Cherokee Boarding School. While she was exposed to more modern methods of producing pottery, Welch insisted on maintaining tradition and making her pottery the "old way." Welch was an aunt of the Bigmeats, a prominent family of Cherokee potters. The photographer's name is unknown.

Unknown

Photograph Collection

Hunter Library Digital Collections, Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC 28723

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/

jpg;

photographs

StillImage

11026

https://southernappalachiandigitalcollections.org/object/11026

2010-10-19

All rights reserved. For permissions and use, contact Qualla Arts and Crafts Mutual, Inc., Cherokee, NC 28719;

Qualla Boundary

Appalachian Region, Southern

8" x 10"(dimension)

Cherokee Traditions