I know Southern resources...not so much NY. However, Cooperstown, Winterthur, the Met and the Cooper Hewitt have some of the best decorative arts libraries and resources in the country...it'd be worth checking with them.
 
Further South:
 
There's a chair museum in Waterford, Virginia, a Quaker village that had many craftsmen producing the chairs on display. I dont know further facts about their chairmakers, but it might be worth contacting the Waterford Foundation for more information.
 
The Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts in Winston-Salem has much information on southern craftspeople.
 
And the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Museum of Folk Art in Williamsburg, VA has a good library and good resources to check. They have the depiction of the first banjo in this country, shown in a painting of African American group dancing.
 
Each of these organizations is  expanding its knowledge base as far as African American history (thus trades people) goes.
 

Camille Agricola Bowman
Easement Technical Advisor
Tidewater Region Preservation Office
Department of Historic Resources
14415 Old Courthouse Way
Newport News, Virginia 23608
Tel: 757-503-1549 (NOTE: New Number)
Fax: 757-886-2808

 


From: The listserv where the buildings do the talking [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of [log in to unmask]
Sent: Wednesday, December 16, 2009 5:26 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [BP] Be Seated

F-O-R,
 
A few years back I took a sackback Windsor chair making class with Mike Dunbar at the Windsor Institute in New Hampshire. We've stayed in touch, and recently he got onto the topic of African-American Windsor chair makers, a topic which morphed into African-American chair makers in general. He just asked me if I knew of any who operated out of New York and surrounds. I know of one in south Jersey, but wondered if any of you BP seat warmers know if any made chairs where you are?
 
Thanks,
 
VI 

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