The Nicodemus Center for Ceramic Studies (NCCS) maintains and builds its
collections as a public repository for objects made at historic folk
potteries of the Cumberland/Shenandoah Valley. These potteries flourished
from the late 1700s to the early 1900s. They were small, family owned and
operated shops that used wood-fired kilns to produce utilitarian and
decorative earthenwares and stonewares. Currently, NCCS has 55 objects in
its permanent collections, representing seven such potteries. They have come
to the center through donations from private individuals and, in three
cases, by purchase. NCCS holds these objects in public trust for the benefit
of the communities it serves.
NCCS also maintains an archaeological collection based, so far, on
excavations of the Solomon and Daniel Baker Pottery and the John Bell & Sons
Pottery, both of Waynesboro. These excavations, carried out from 1994 to
1999, have produced more than 35,000 artifacts. Future archaeology is
planned for the Hugh McConnell Pottery in Mercersburg and the John Bowman
Pottery in Boonesboro, MD.
You can click on each of the images below to see a larger photograph of the piece.
