Thomas Day: Behind the Veneer
Tuesday, May 18 2010
by Frank Stasio and Lindsay Thomas
In racially segregated times, a black man named Thomas Day managed to become the most successful cabinet maker in North Carolina. Day, who began making furniture in the 1820s, was a skilled craftsman who was commissioned to design pieces for some of the South's most prominent white families and he owned and operated his own shop -- one of the largest in the pre-Civil War era. His work is documented in a new book called "Thomas Day: Master Craftsman and Free Man of Color" (UNC Press/2010) and the subject of a new exhibit at the North Carolina Museum of History. The book's co-authors, Patricia Phillips Marshall and Jo Ramsay Leimenstoll, join host Frank Stasio to talk about the unique talent and timeless creations of Thomas Day.
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