October Cabinet of Curiosities

Lauren Virgo and Leah Walker

October 13, 2019

The Aiken County Historical Museum will curate monthly this article and will feature guest spots from other regional historical entities. As you may or may not know, “Cabinet of Curiosities” is a term used to describe early versions of museums, and we are full of curiosities in our area. It is our goal to bring you fascinating stories, local legends, and hidden secrets from the county’s past. The curators of this article will be Lauren Virgo and Leah Walker, the executive director and site & events manager of the museum, respectively.

So, grab a cup of coffee and settle in to read more about your hometown history. To start us off at the beginning, Aiken County was founded on March 10, 1871 during the middle of the Reconstruction period. Carved from the Edgefield, Barnwell, Lexington, and Orangeburg districts, our county was founded by men of color – some who were born free and some who were born enslaved. This creation of a county during Reconstruction was rare and unique for the South, especially South Carolina. We celebrate that legacy each year on Founders Day at the Aiken County Historical Museum.

Since this month’s theme for Bella is the arts, it is appropriate that this Cabinet of Curiosity should feature the history of regional pottery. The Edgefield and Horse Creek Valley areas are rich in clay, feldspar, and kaolin deposits – making our region a hot-bed of pottery activity. They created pottery for functional purposes in the 19th century in our region, such as storing food stuffs. However, in modern times, the same pottery has garnered the attention of those who appreciate art with its form and underlying skill.

Two well-known historic regional potters are Thomas Chandler and David Drake. Chandler gained his skill as a potter while apprenticing in Baltimore, Maryland. He moved to the Edgefield area and set-up shop producing decorated pottery from 1836 to 1853. His work is noted for its technical skill and its decorative flourishes. David (aka Dave) Drake was born into slavery around 1801 in the Edgefield district. During his lifetime, they taught him how to read and write. His pottery is unique because not only did he sign and date his pieces, he sometimes wrote poetry on the pots. Dave lived to become a free man after emancipation, but we know not much about his life after the Civil War. His work has been collected by private persons and national museums, such as the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.

Both potters’ works can be seen at the Aiken County Historical Museum. You can also visit the museum every Thursday morning from 10 am to 11 am and every second Saturday from 10 am to 2 pm to see the historical art of weaving on a loom performed by two regional artists.

If you have enjoyed this Cabinet of Curiosity, please stay tuned for more fascinating facts in the coming months.

Cabinet of Curiosities | Aiken Bella Magazine — Signed David Drake pot at the ACHM. It is signed LM for Dave’s owner Lewis Miles.

Until then, stay curious!

By Lauren Virgo + Leah Walker

Lauren Virgo and Leah Walker

In the know

The Boston Molasses Disaster

Charleston, South Carolina had its own Tea Party incident on December 3, 1773, 13 days before the one in Boston. You learned about the Boston Tea Party in school, did you not? It was no picnic — It was a protest against taxes imposed on the colonies by the British government. No one was hurt, and no property was damaged. Except, that is, for the 342 crates of tea, about 45 tons, that were dumped into the Boston Harbor on December 16, 1773. I wonder whether all that tea turned the water in the harbor brown… We think of food in small portions — a glass of wine, a slice

The Empty Tomb

The morning was quiet, the sun beginning to rise and touch the hills surrounding Jerusalem and the buildings within its walls with soft golden light. Ananias left the inner courts of the Temple, the words of the Shema fading away behind him as he stepped into the Court of the Gentiles. “Shema Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Ehad.” Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One. The smell of animals still filled the courtyard from all the beasts that had inhabited it in the days preceding the Passover, and the Pharisee could still hear the tumultuous noise in his memory. But right now the Temple grounds were quiet

Court Tennis Comes to Aiken | Cabinet of Curiosities

Aiken, a town of scarcely 30,000 people, is home to one of only ten court tennis buildings active in the United States. How did this game of royalty and tradition, played by Henry VIII himself, come to these quiet backwoods? It is a story of sportsmen building “a rustic, sporting retreat.” Court tennis, called “real tennis” outside the United States, predates our modern game of tennis (“lawn tennis”). It likely evolved from a game played in medieval courtyards that involved hitting a ball back and forth with a bare hand, later with a glove. By Renaissance times, there were hundreds of enclosed courts in Europe, and the glove had been

Grocery Stores in Aiken

Most people take for granted the convenience and “luxury” of shopping in the modern mega grocery stores of today like Kroger, Publix, Fresh Market, and Walmart. Things were not always this way. A Brief History Prior to 1946 most grocery stores in Aiken — the exception would be Hahn and Co. on Laurens Street where Aiken Drugs used to be — were small mom-and-pop operations that just sold basic staples. That all changed in 1946 with the opening of the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Co., better known as the A&P, on Park Avenue in what is now the Chesser Building. Augusta University Health and Aiken Dermatology reside in that