Maude Welch

Maude Welch

Artisans

Cherokee art

Cherokee women

Exhibitions

Handicraft

Manners and customs

Potters

This photograph was taken while Maude Welch was demonstrating pottery at the 1949 Craftsman's Fair of the Southern Highlands. 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 name of the photographer is unknown.

Unknown

Photograph Collection

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

1949-07-27

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

jpg;

photographs

StillImage

11027

https://southernappalachiandigitalcollections.org/object/11027

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

10" x 8"(dimension)

Cherokee Traditions