‘Boonsboro’ Rural Pottery On Display At Cane Hill

CANE HILL — For Lawrence McElroy, director of arts and culture for Historic Cane Hill, a new public exhibit on rural potters is a way to bring many pieces of 19th century stoneware back home.

The exhibition, titled “Men of Earth: Nineteenth Century Potters of Northwest Arkansas,” focuses on J.D. Wilbur, a master potter who arrived in Boonsboro (now Cane Hill) from Ohio around 1868.

Wilbur came from a family of 27 potters, including his father and brothers, but McElroy has yet to find out what drew him to this area from Ohio.

That’s one of McElroy’s questions about Wilbur. The bigger question, he said, is how did Wilbur know Boonsboro had the proper clay for making pottery.

The pottery exhibit at The Museum Gallery at Historic Cane Hill will feature 19th century saltglazed stoneware that includes many pieces that have never been seen by the public. The exhibition will narrate the life and work of 15 rural potters who once called Northwest Arkansas home.

The Men of Earth exhibition will open in conjunction with the Cane Hill Harvest Festival, Sept. 21-22, and run through Nov. 24. Following the festival, the gallery will be open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday, and by appointment.

McElroy’s interest in Cane Hill pottery started when he came to the community as curator for Historic Cane Hill Museum. He found a small collection of seven pieces of pottery made by Wilbur. McElroy said he wanted to highlight the pieces but realized the collection was really too small for an exhibit.

Historic Cane Hill plans to open a pottery studio in the future and discussions about that reignited McElroy’s interest in Wilbur’s collection.

McElroy said he incorrectly assumed Wilbur was an itinerant person passing through Cane Hill until he started researching the man. His research found evidence of a “much, much bigger story.”

For one, he learned about Wilbur’s family of potters. He learned that Wilbur built his own kiln from scratch in Cane Hill. McElroy also began to learn about other potters in Northwest Arkansas during 1845 through the early 1890s.

From his research, he said he was able to link Wilbur in Cane Hill to other major pottery centers in Benton, Texarkana, Ohio and Texas.

“It’s a fascinating network of potters,” McElroy said, comparing his research to detective work. “Completely unexpected things keep popping up.”

Once he saw connections and links between some of the potters, McElroy said he started looking for those within every story.

“It’s a crazy network that I did not anticipate at all.”

The exhibition will have about 40 pieces of pottery, along with 25 graphic panels with photographs, text and other information. It includes a 500-year-old Native American vessel recovered from an Ozark bluff shelter in this area and looks forward to the art pottery movement in America in the early 20th century.

McElroy said he’s designed the exhibit for people who have little interest or knowledge of Arkansas history and pottery and for those who are very knowledgeable.

“There’s something for everyone,” he said.

In a news release about the exhibition, McElroy writes: “Visitors will learn about Arkansas’ rich history of pottery production, including the vital contribution of one slave to the development of the Arkansas pottery industry, the interconnectedness of Arkansas’ rural potters, and Northwest Arkansas’ links to internationally acclaimed Niloak pottery and the American Art Pottery movement.”

Some of the special pieces in the exhibit will include an original section of Wilbur’s 1870’s ground-hog type woodfired kiln, which came from an undisclosed site near Cane Hill, and the only surviving vessel produced by the earliest Northwest Arkansas potter.

McElroy has pottery on loan from a number of private collections and six museums in Arkansas, including Shiloh Museum, University of Arkansas Museum, Washington County Historical Society and Fort Smith History Museum.

The largest collection on display will be Wilbur’s pottery. Wilbur’s utilitarian stoneware pottery, used for everyday life, includes churns, storage jars, pitchers, crocks, jugs and some flower pots. The display also will include many fragments of Wilbur’s pottery.

“It will be the largest collection of Boonsboro pottery every amassed at one place in one time,” McElroy said.

LYNN KUTTER ENTERPRISE-LEADER Lawrence McElroy, director of arts and culture for Historic Cane Hill, stands next to the banner announcing the next exhibit for The Museum Gallery at Historic Cane Hill. An exhibit on 19th century potters of Northwest Arkansas opens Sept. 21 during the 33rd Cane Hill Harvest Festival.

The exhibit, “Men of Earth: Nineteenth Century Potters of Northwest Arkansas,” focuses on J.D. Wilbur and Boonsboro Pottery but also will narrate the life and work of 14 other rural potters who once called this area home. The exhibit will be on display at The Museum Gallery at Historic Cane Hill through Nov. 24.

PHOTOS BY LYNN KUTTER ENTERPRISE-LEADER An exhibit on 19th century potters of Northwest Arkansas will include these pieces called missionware swirl pattern vases from the Nikoak Pottery Company in Benton. These were made around 1930.

An exhibit on 19th century potters of Northwest Arkansas will feature J.D. Wilbur, a master potter who arrived in Boonsboro (now Cane Hill( in 1868. The pottery in the foreground are some pieces that will be on display.