Craftsman's Fair, 1949: Maude Welch

Craftsman's Fair, 1949: Maude Welch

Artisans

Arts and crafts movement

Cherokee art

Cherokee women

Craftsman's Fair of the Southern Highlands (1949 : Gatlinburg, Tenn.)

Exhibitions

Handicraft

This photograph, taken by an unknown photographer, shows Welch making bark canoes at the 1949 Craftsman's Fair of the Southern Highlands in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. 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

Photographic Media

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

1949-07-27

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

jpg;

photographs

StillImage

15386

https://southernappalachiandigitalcollections.org/object/15386

2008-10-06

All rights reserved. For permissions and use, contact Southern Highland Craft Guild Archives, Asheville, NC 28815;

Appalachian Region, Southern

2.5" x 2"(dimension)

Craft Revival