Updated Recently

Bernie Marcus

Bernie Marcus

2 weeks ago
Third Day

Third Day

2 weeks ago

A More Perfect Union

The New Georgia Encyclopedia is supported by funding from A More Perfect Union, a special initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Busy Bee Quilting Club

Busy Bee Quilting Club

Georgia quilt makers, such as the Busy Bee Quilting Club in Dalton, continue to make quilts for the same reasons as earlier generations: to engage in a satisfying creative activity, to produce beautiful objects of lasting value for family and friends, and to make connections with other people.

Quilting Group, ca. 1900

Quilting Group, ca. 1900

A Chatham County quilt-making group, circa 1900, included (left to right) Avie Wheeler, Leona Wheeler, Sarah Wheeler, and Mary Jane Wheeler (seated). These women made the quilt that hangs in the background.

Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
ctm216.

View on partner site

Bible Quilt

Bible Quilt

Harriet Powers finished her Bible Quilt around 1886 in Athens. The third panel in the second row depicts the story of Jacob's dream, when "he lay on the ground." Enslaved African Americans identified with Jacob, for he was homeless, hunted, and weary of his journey.

Courtesy of National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution

Ladies Aid Society, 1904

Ladies Aid Society, 1904

Members of the Ladies Aid Society of Marietta at a First Baptist Church quilting in 1904.

Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
cob819.

View on partner site

Quilt Maker, ca. 1968

Quilt Maker, ca. 1968

An unidentified Waynesboro woman displays her handiwork at a show sponsored by the Economic Opportunity Agency, circa 1968.

Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #bur150.

View on partner site

Folk Pottery

Folk Pottery

Georgia potters picked up the European approach that uses a potter's wheel, kiln, and glazes in the early 1800s. Here a potter forms clay with his hands as the clay rotates on a potter's wheel.

Photograph by Fred Fussell

Clete Meaders: Sensing the Character

Clete Meaders talks about the history of the Meaders family pottery business.

Video by Darby Carl Sanders and Josh Borger, New Georgia Encyclopedia

Lin Craven: Folk Pottery

Lin Craven makes a ring jug and discusses why she became a potter.

Video by Darby Carl Sanders, New Georgia Encyclopedia

Lin Craven: Making a Ring Jug

Folk potter Lin Craven demonstrates as she explains how to make a ring jug.

Video by Darby Carl Sanders, New Georgia Encyclopedia

Chenille Bedspreads

Chenille Bedspreads

Mrs. J. A. Green and her son, Allen Burton, make tufted bedspreads on U.S. Highway 41 in Bartow County, 1933. Green was one of the first in the county to make chenille bedspreads.

Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #brt122.

View on partner site

Catherine Evans Whitener

Catherine Evans Whitener

Catherine Evans Whitener brought back the handcraft of tufting in the 1890s, which played an important role in the economic development of northwest Georgia as its popularity grew.

Courtesy of Shaw Industries, Inc.

Arthur Dilbert

Arthur Dilbert

The African American tradition of carving walking sticks with reptile and human figures is exemplified by the work of coastal Georgia artists like Arthur "Pete" Dilbert of Savannah. Photograph by Billy Howard

Hmong Story Cloth

Hmong Story Cloth

A story cloth by textile artist and Hmong refugee May Tong Moua depicts Hmong villagers fleeing Communist forces (upper right-hand corner) in Laos and crossing the Mekong River to arrive at a refugee camp in Thailand. A resident of Lilburn, May Tong Moua is among a number of Hmong refugees who resettled in DeKalb and Gwinnett counties. The story cloth, made in 1991, is housed at the Atlanta History Center.

Courtesy of Atlanta History Center.

Ernie Mills: Decoy Maker

Ernie Mills, who moved to Perry, Georgia, in 1978, is one of the few working decoy makers who still use a hatchet to hand-chop each decoy. Mills talks about decoy making.

Video by Darby Carl Sanders and Josh Borger, New Georgia Encyclopedia

Hmong Textile Artist

Hmong Textile Artist

Hmong textile artist May Yang Moua, pictured in 1991, displays her finished flower cloths. Hmong refugees from Laos settling in DeKalb and Gwinnett counties have brought their needlework traditions to Georgia.

Courtesy of Georgia Council for the Arts, Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College Libraries.