Corner Cupboard 

Maker Unknown
1790 - 1810
Knox County, Tennessee
Walnut with yellow pine
HOA: 1-1 1/4", WOA: 56 1/2", DOA: 23 1/2"
MESDA Purchase Fund (acc. 5422)

The Scots-Irish were one of the many ethnic groups who settled in the Southern Backcountry.  This corner cupboard descended in the Anderson and McCampbell families that migrated from Ireland to Pennsylvania, to Rockbridge County, Virginia, and then to Knox County, Tennessee.  Made at the turn of the nineteenth century, the cupboard is known to have belonged to Robert Anderson and his wife, Catherine McCampbell, who were married by Robert's brother, the Presbyterian minister Isaac Anderson, in 1825.  The distinctive carving and heavy dentil cornice are attributed to an unidentified carver and cabinetmaker whose work followed the same trail, moving from the Shenandoah Valley to eastern Knox County.