For the Media

New MESDA Exhibit Begins Oct. 1, Explores Georgia's Decorative Arts

Winston-Salem, N.C. – The artistic legacy of Georgia, from the first settlement at Savannah to the eve of the Civil War, is showcased in a new exhibit beginning Thursday, Oct. 1, at the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts in Old Salem. The exhibit, titled “A Land of Liberty and Plenty”: Georgia Decorative Arts, 1733 to 1860,” will be on view in MESDA’s G. Wilson Douglas, Jr. Exhibition Gallery. The exhibit will close March 31, 2010.

Admission to “A Land of Liberty and Plenty” is free. An expanded version of the exhibit will be online at www.MESDA.org.

“MESDA has Georgia on its mind,” said Robert Leath, the Vice President and Chief Curator. “In May, the museum more than doubled its collection of Georgia-made objects. I can’t think of a better way to debut these objects to the public than in a special exhibition highlighting the importance of Georgia and its decorative arts to the American South, and to MESDA.”

The exhibit is drawn almost exclusively from MESDA’s newly expanded collection of Georgia-made objects, many from the pioneering collection of the late Florence and Bill Griffin. Among the objects featured are a table made by Salzburger settlers in Ebeneezer circa 1740, which is the earliest surviving piece of Georgia furniture; a sampler worked by Mary Smallwood, circa 1778, which is the earliest known piece of Georgia needlework; and a ceramic jar made by Andrew Duché, Georgia’s earliest potter, circa 1740.

Other objects to debut at the exhibit are a grain-painted corner cupboard made in Oglethorpe County and part of the original furnishings of the Dozier family’s c. 1840 White Oak Plantation; a small inlaid table made in the 1830s by Thomas J. Maxwell, a farmer-cabinetmaker in Elbert County; and a stunning watercolor of a painted bunting by English-born naturalist John Abbot (1751-1840).

“Georgia has always been an important part of the MESDA South,” Leath said. “With these acquisitions, MESDA has achieved a long-term goal of enhancing its representation of Georgia’s craftsmen in its collection.”