The American Guide Series, produced by the Federal Writers’ Project, is one of the most well-known WPA projects. Written as a collection of travel guides, the series included suggested tour routes as well as essays on the history and culture of each U.S. state and territory. Major U.S. cities and several regions were also given their own separate guidebooks.
The state guides give a fascinating snapshot of American life in the 1930s. Written in a lively and approachable style, they detail and celebrate the rich diversity that our country displayed at that time. The writers’ enthusiasm is infectious and their guide is as much fun to read today as it must have been for travelers in the 1930s.
Several historians have written about the American Guide Series over the past 80 years, but no one, to my knowledge, has used them as current-day travel guides. That is just what I set out to do. I am an American historian, art photographer, and enthusiastic traveler. I have read each of these guides. I love them for their wonderful enthusiasm and their curiosity about every aspect of regional life—from food, to linguistics, to folklore, to statistics, to geography, to environment, to history—and especially for their liberal attitudes and respect for diversity. In this series, I will be posting photo essays and articles based upon tours recommended in the guides.
Fern L. Nesson
When its Guide was published in 1939, “North Carolina had no publicly owned art museums or galleries.” (North Carolina Guide p. 116) But art was by no means lacking. The practice and profession of fine crafts in the form of pottery had been thriving in the central part of the state since the early 1700s.
“In the 18th century a colony of potters from Staffordshire, England, settled in the Piedmont at the juncture of Moore, Randolph, and Montgomery Counties. Here their descendants continue to fashion churns, crocks, bowls, and jugs, grinding the local clay by mule power and turning it on the old-fashioned kick wheel. Best known of the potteries of this region is Jugtown Pottery […] In addition to preserving the native traditional designs, the Jugtown Pottery has produced many special forms inspired by old Chinese pottery.
At Cole’s Pottery, near Seagrove, where the pieces are also made by hand, some of the most beautiful glazes in the South have been developed. Hilton Pottery in Catawba County has also produced special glazes, particularly combinations of gray and blue.”
Guide p. 120
The tradition of fine art pottery continues to this day in the Piedmont, with some of the same families still engaged in making elegant work. Seagrove, a tiny rural town remains the epicenter of North Carolina pottery. 200 potters work in and around the town. In November for the past 40 years, Seagrove hosts the Festival of North Carolina Pottery and the town recently opened the Museum of North Carolina Traditional Pottery on its main street. The Museum suggests tours of the area and displays historic pottery dating back to 1740 alongside more modern examples from local potters.
In addition to the Museum, visitors can visit the studios of potters including those of long-standing families such as the Owen Pottery and the Jugtown Pottery. You can meet the potters, watch them at their wheels and purchase work ranging from kitchenware of modest cost to museum-quality work costing thousands.
A day or more exploring North Carolina pottery is wonderful fun and truly educational. There’s beauty everywhere as the following photographs will demonstrate. North Carolina now has public art museums but its pottery studios can compete on every level for beauty and artistic importance.
April, 2022
