Material Georgia 1733 – 1900: Two Decades of Scholarship

To celebrate two decades of its Henry D. Green Center for the Study of the Decorative Arts, the Georgia Museum of Art at the University of Georgia organized the exhibition “Material Georgia 1733 – 1900: Two Decades of Scholarship,” on which this heavily illustrated catalogue expands. It takes a comprehensive look at Georgia’s diverse contributions to early decorative arts and summarizes the scholarship of the past 20 years. It focuses on revealing new discoveries made in the field, pointing a way forward and making the case Georgia can hold its own against any other state in terms of the quality of its decorative arts. “Material Georgia” surveys Georgia decorative art in media including furniture, silver, pottery, textiles, basketry and portraits. Georgia has had a troubled history, shaped by the system of slavery and widespread inequality, but its diverse material culture tells about the lives of all its people.

Dale L. Couch, editor and author of much of this catalogue, is curator of decorative arts at the Georgia Museum of Art and directs the Henry D. Green Center for the Study of the Decorative Arts there. Other authors include Linda Chesnut, chair of the museum’s Decorative Arts Advisory Committee; Daniel Chamberlin, independent scholar and former Green Center intern; silver expert Charlotte Morley Crabtree; graduate intern Ashlyn Davis; early Georgia furniture expert Jeff Finch; Jenny Garwood, adjunct curator of textiles and curatorial and administrative associate at MESDA; Brenda Hornsby Heindl, independent scholar and practicing potter; Maryellen Higginbotham, retired curator of the Root House Museum in Marietta, Georgia; Robert Leath, chief curator and vice president at MESDA; Joseph Litts, master’s student at the University of Delaware and former Green Center intern; Keith M. McCurry, an authority on early furniture from the upstate of South Carolina; Caroline Rainey, an independent scholar focused on early American material culture and former Green Center intern; James Rooks, master’s candidate in the UGA historic preservation program and Green Center intern; and Kathleen Staples, independent scholar in the social and cultural history of England and the Americas as expressed through textiles and related craft.

240 pages; (hardcover)

ISBN: 978-194665711-4

Publishing Date: December 2019