Everyday Artistry

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For centuries, many people in North Carolina made what they needed with what they had on hand. They transformed flour-sack cloth into clothing, tobacco twine into crocheted bedspreads, local wood into household furniture, and other available materials into useful items. Sometimes they adorned their creations with decorative embellishments.

At age 10, Mary Herring Lamb of Sampson County made this quilt, ca. 1879, from sewing scraps. The quilt is a variation of the Washington sidewalk pattern. Image credit: N.C. Museum of History.

The new exhibit Everyday Artistry at the N.C. Museum of History in Raleigh showcases a variety of utilitarian, yet decorative, items made by North Carolinians. Spanning three centuries, the exhibit features more than 50 items ranging from handcrafted furniture and toys to kitchen utensils and a variety of quilts. Everyday Artistry will run until June 2009. Admission is free.

Feed-sack cloth and dressmaking scraps were used in this strip quilt, ca. 1930-1940. (Note the feed-sack cloth backing.) Eliza Helen Rogers Arrington of Wake County made this quilt. Image credit: N.C. Museum of History.

Until a few generations ago, North Carolina was primarily a rural state, and many citizens had to be jacks- and jills-of-all-trades. People made many of the items they used each day. “Sometimes, for reasons that may or may not be evident to us today, they decorated these functional objects,” says Diana Bell-Kite, exhibit curator.

Some pieces convey the diverse cultural traditions of their creators. In Everyday Artistry, a ca. 1840-1860 table made by an enslaved man from Franklin County reveals his African heritage. Figures carved into the table legs closely resemble certain styles of African sculpture.

Many exhibit artifacts illustrate how using available materials inspired resourcefulness. Clothing remnants were made into quilts, for example, and scrap materials became children’s toys.

Everyday Artistry also features unadorned, utilitarian items from past eras and explains how they became decorative pieces during the 1970s-80s craze for “country” decorating. Amazingly, objects once associated with hard work and survival became art pieces. Decorators used well-worn dough bowls, washboards, butter churns, baskets and other objects as wall hangings or decorative accents. Even the lard paddle (used to stir heated hot fat for lard and lye soap) found its way to the kitchen walls of suburbia.

A lard paddle and washboard as decorating items? How did that happen?

After churning butter, many women chose to decorate it. This hand-carved butter print, ca. 1770-1820, was used to stamp a design onto the butter. Image credit: N.C. Museum of History.

Bell-Kite explains that, by the late 20th century, many North Carolinians lived in cities and suburbs rather than on family farms. “Surrounded by synthetic materials and caught up in the fast pace of modern life, many people felt nostalgic for the ‘good old days.’ Decorating their homes with the utilitarian objects of a past era brought a sense of peace and continuity.”

Visit Everyday Artistry to see how Tar Heels have used creativity and ingenuity to enhance their surroundings and their daily lives. The exhibit is located in the museum’s permanent gallery Pleasing to the Eye: The Decorative Arts of North Carolina. 

For more information about the museum, call 919-807-7900.

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