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 Beginnings of a New County | Cabinet of Curiosities

2021 is a special year for the residents of Aiken County — not only is it a new year of hope after a year of chaos, but it’s also the 150th anniversary of Aiken County’s founding. In January of 1871, state legislator Charles D. Hayne (Barnwell District) proposed an act to create a new county with Aiken as its seat. On March 10, 1871, the act was formally enacted by the South Carolina state legislature. While Hayne was not the first person to promote the idea of a new county, he was the one to get the bill through the state legislature successfully. Names for the new county included the

To Keep Christmas Well

“…and it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well …” It is among the closing lines from Charles Dickens’ classic story, “A Christmas Carol.” It may be one of the best remembered and most cherished sentences in the book. “To keep Christmas well,” I suspect, implies different things to each of us. But in the language of the day when this book was written, it meant to observe, or to honor, or to celebrate something. To actively remember. Perhaps in this year of rather lopsided “celebrations” — with their often double-edged experiences and wobbly sense of imbalance — I have found myself searching for

Story of Hanukkah

Hanukkah is the Jewish Festival of Lights, celebrated to commemorate the rededication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem after Judah Maccabee’s victory over the occupying Greek army in 165 BC. In the land of Judah, ruling Syrian King Antiochus ordered the Jewish population to reject all their religious beliefs and practices and worship Greek gods. For fear of the occupying Greek military that enforced King Antiochus’ decree, some Jews obeyed that command, but the majority chose to rebel against it. Thus were sown the seeds of what would ultimately become the celebration of Hanukkah. Fights broke out in a village near Jerusalem when Greek soldiers demanded that the Jewish villagers

Rocking Around the (Metal? Holly?) Christmas Tree | Cabinet of Curiosities

Have you ever watched A Charlie Brown Christmas television special and wondered about the metal Christmas tree lot that Charlie Brown visits? Did you know that cutting down a holly tree almost became illegal in our area? Let’s explore this curious affinity for metal Christmas trees and an early effort to save the holly tree in the latest episode of the Cabinet of Curiosities! The History of Christmas Trees When imagining our ancestors and how they may have spent Christmases a few hundred years in the past, many of us picture a happy family around a large, decorated tree, with a blazing fire in the hearth and children playing at