DawsonTimes.com

The Folk Pottery Museum of Northeast Georgia displays publicly for the first time the oldest known piece of folk pottery from northeast Georgia, beginning Saturday, February 28.  The 4-gallon jar is on loan from Atlanta’s High Museum of Art for one year.

Dr. John Burrison, folklorist at Georgia State University and Curator of the Folk Pottery Museum, first learned of the jar more than a decade ago and traced it to the High Museum’s permanent collection of folk art.  Folk Pottery Museum Director Chris Brooks arranged the special exhibition loan from the High Museum.

The jar has an inscription on the bottom, which reads: “Josiah Vandufer  his year / the 25 of September 1832.”  Dr. Burrison’s research into Habersham County (which at that time included all of what is now White County) historical records indicates that the Adam Poole Vandiver family migrated into the area in 1822 and settled at the foot of Mount Yonah.

“We believe that the inscription refers to the family purchasing the pottery rather than naming the potter who made the jar, which would have been more common practice at that time,” comments Chris Brooks.  “Historical records from the 1850 census in the area show an 18-year old farmer “J.V.” as part of the Vandiver household.  This suggests that the jar was made by one of the pioneer Mossy Creek potters to celebrate Josiah’s birth in 1832.  The Vandiver family would have been completing their fall harvest of meat and crops in September of that year and needed many pottery jars of this kind to preserve their food in order to survive the winter.” 

The Folk Pottery Museum of Northeast Georgia is located on Georgia Highway 255, 1/4-mile north of an intersection with Georgia Highway 17.  The Museum is open Monday through Saturday, 10 am – 5 pm, Sunday 1-5 pm, and admission is $5 for adults, $4 for seniors and $2 for children.  

In addition to a permanent collection of more than 160 pieces of folk pottery, the Museum contains: exhibits explaining the processes of refining clay, then shaping, glazing and firing pottery; dioramas showing how pottery was an essential item of household life through the early to mid-20th century; a video where members of the Meaders family of the Mossy Creek area show how pottery has been produced for generations on their homesteads.  For further information, visitwww.folkpotterymuseum.com or call 706-878-3300.