• Visit
    • Plan Your Visit
    • Dining Options
    • Military Branch
    • State Capitol
    • Tennessee Residence
    • Green McAdoo Cultural Center
    • Accessibility
    • Museum Store
    • About Us
      • History and Mission Statement
      • Museum Management
      • Douglas Henry State Museum Commission
      • Contact
    • Resources
  • Home
  • Exhibitions
    • Collections
      • Search Our Collection
      • Collection Scope
      • Artifact Donation
    • Permanent Exhibitions
      • Tennessee Time Tunnel
      • Natural History
      • First Peoples
      • Forging a Nation
      • The Civil War and Reconstruction
      • Change and Challenge
      • Tennessee Transforms
    • Temporary Exhibitions
      • STARS: Elementary Visual Art Exhibition 2023
      • Remembrance: Military Representation Through Public Art at the State Capitol
      • Early Expressions: Art in Tennessee Before 1900
      • In Search of the New: Art in Tennessee Since 1900
      • Why Do Museums Collect
    • Online Exhibitions
      • National Photography Month
      • Preserving African American Culture
      • Tennessee at 225
      • Ratified! Statewide!
      • Canvassing Tennessee: Artists and Their Environments
    • Past Exhibitions
      • A Better Life for Their Children
      • Painting the Smokies
      • Tennessee at 225
      • Best of Tennessee Craft
      • Ratified! Tennessee Women and the Right to Vote
      • Tennessee and the Great War: A Centennial Exhibition
      • STARS: Elementary Art Exhibition 2022
      • Cordell Hull: Tennessee's Father of the United Nations
      • Lets Eat! Origins and Evolutions of Tennessee Food
      • The State of Sound: Tennessee’s Musical Heritage
      • Red Grooms: A Retrospective
      • Between The Layers: Art and Story in Tennessee Quilts
    • Children's Gallery
  • Education
    • Field Trips
      • On-Site Field Trips
      • On-Site Field Trip Request Form
      • Virtual Field Trips
      • Virtual Field Trips Request Form
    • Traveling Trunks & Reservations
      • Reserve a Trunk
      • From Barter to Budget, Financial Literacy in Tennessee
      • The Life and Times of the First Tennesseans
      • Daily Life on the Tennessee Frontier
      • Cherokee in Tennessee: Their Life, Culture, and Removal
      • The Age of Jackson and Tennessee’s Legendary Leaders
      • The Life of a Civil War Soldier
      • The Lives of Three Tennessee Slaves and Their Journey Towards Freedom
      • The Three Rs of Reconstruction: Rights, Restrictions and Resistance.
      • Understanding Women's Suffrage: Tennessee's Perfect 36
      • Transforming America: Tennessee on the World War II Homefront
      • The Modern Movement for Civil Rights in Tennessee
      • Tennessee: Its Land & People
    • Professional Development
    • Tennessee4Me
  • Programs & Events
    • Calendar of Events
    • Videos
    • TN Writers | TN Stories
    • Passport to Tennessee History
    • Newsletter Signup
  • TSM Kids
    • Kids Home
    • Children's Gallery
    • Junior Curators Blog
    • Storytime
    • Color Our Collection
    • Jigsaw Puzzles
    • Girl Scout Patch
  • Donate
  • Blogs and More
    • Thousands of Stories
    • Your Story Our Story
    • Junior Curators
    • Quarterly Newsletters
  • Plan Your Visit
  • Donate
  • Events
  • Search
TN State Museum logo Tn State Museum mark
  • Visit
    • Plan Your Visit
    • Dining Options
    • Military Branch
    • State Capitol
    • Tennessee Residence
    • Green McAdoo Cultural Center
    • Accessibility
    • Museum Store
    • About Us
      • History and Mission Statement
      • Museum Management
      • Douglas Henry State Museum Commission
      • Contact
    • Resources
  • Home
  • Exhibitions
    • Collections
      • Search Our Collection
      • Collection Scope
      • Artifact Donation
    • Permanent Exhibitions
      • Tennessee Time Tunnel
      • Natural History
      • First Peoples
      • Forging a Nation
      • The Civil War and Reconstruction
      • Change and Challenge
      • Tennessee Transforms
    • Temporary Exhibitions
      • STARS: Elementary Visual Art Exhibition 2023
      • Remembrance: Military Representation Through Public Art at the State Capitol
      • Early Expressions: Art in Tennessee Before 1900
      • In Search of the New: Art in Tennessee Since 1900
      • Why Do Museums Collect
    • Online Exhibitions
      • National Photography Month
      • Preserving African American Culture
      • Tennessee at 225
      • Ratified! Statewide!
      • Canvassing Tennessee: Artists and Their Environments
    • Past Exhibitions
      • A Better Life for Their Children
      • Painting the Smokies
      • Tennessee at 225
      • Best of Tennessee Craft
      • Ratified! Tennessee Women and the Right to Vote
      • Tennessee and the Great War: A Centennial Exhibition
      • STARS: Elementary Art Exhibition 2022
      • Cordell Hull: Tennessee's Father of the United Nations
      • Lets Eat! Origins and Evolutions of Tennessee Food
      • The State of Sound: Tennessee’s Musical Heritage
      • Red Grooms: A Retrospective
      • Between The Layers: Art and Story in Tennessee Quilts
    • Children's Gallery
  • Education
    • Field Trips
      • On-Site Field Trips
      • On-Site Field Trip Request Form
      • Virtual Field Trips
      • Virtual Field Trips Request Form
    • Traveling Trunks & Reservations
      • Reserve a Trunk
      • From Barter to Budget, Financial Literacy in Tennessee
      • The Life and Times of the First Tennesseans
      • Daily Life on the Tennessee Frontier
      • Cherokee in Tennessee: Their Life, Culture, and Removal
      • The Age of Jackson and Tennessee’s Legendary Leaders
      • The Life of a Civil War Soldier
      • The Lives of Three Tennessee Slaves and Their Journey Towards Freedom
      • The Three Rs of Reconstruction: Rights, Restrictions and Resistance.
      • Understanding Women's Suffrage: Tennessee's Perfect 36
      • Transforming America: Tennessee on the World War II Homefront
      • The Modern Movement for Civil Rights in Tennessee
      • Tennessee: Its Land & People
    • Professional Development
    • Tennessee4Me
  • Programs & Events
    • Calendar of Events
    • Videos
    • TN Writers | TN Stories
    • Passport to Tennessee History
    • Newsletter Signup
  • TSM Kids
    • Kids Home
    • Children's Gallery
    • Junior Curators Blog
    • Storytime
    • Color Our Collection
    • Jigsaw Puzzles
    • Girl Scout Patch
  • Donate
  • Blogs and More
    • Thousands of Stories
    • Your Story Our Story
    • Junior Curators
    • Quarterly Newsletters

Enter a search request and press enter. Press Esc or the X to close.

Close
Stories Header
Stories Header
1 Stories Header
  • Home
  • Blogs and More
  • Thousands of Stories

1-12-21

Collection Highlight: Desk & Bookcase by Moses Crawford, 1790 to 1800

This article appears in the Fall/Winter 2020/21 Issue of the Tennessee State Museum Quarterly newsletter.

This summer, the Museum was very fortunate to acquire a desk and bookcase built by Tennessee’s earliest documented cabinetmaker, Moses Crawford. Made of walnut and yellow pine, this piece of furniture dates between 1790 and 1800. As with much of Crawford’s work, it features a five-part cornice including an applied dentil and scalloped molding and fluted quarter columns. 

The desk and bookcase are important additions to the Museum’s collection, not only for its fine craftsmanship, but also for the story of Crawford himself. After likely training as a cabinetmaker in the Shenandoah Valley, Crawford, like many other early settlers, probably migrated down the Great Wagon Road to the area that would eventually become East Tennessee. Although he probably arrived in the 1760s, he first appears in the record in 1775. While living in the Nolichucky River Valley, he witnessed a land treaty between a neighbor and five of the Overhill Cherokee leaders. Just a few years later, he experienced firsthand the high tensions and suspicion of the American Revolution as communities tried to determine who was loyal to the Crown or their new country. In 1779, Crawford was formally accused of being a Loyalist. To avoid being jailed, the court ordered him to take an oath of allegiance to the State of North Carolina and pay a bond of ten thousand pounds. 

Image: Desk and Bookcase by Moses Crawford, 2020.50.1 and .2

By 1800, he moved to the Knox County area and continued to make furniture for his clients, who were often friends and neighbors. When he died in 1819, his cabinetmaking tools were listed in a probate inventory, further cementing his profession as a craftsperson in early Tennessee. More about Crawford’s life and craftsmanship can be found in C. Tracey Parks’ 2013 article “Moses Crawford: Tennessee’s Earliest Cabinetmaker Revealed” in the Journal of Early Southern Decorative Arts.  


 

Newsletter-Winter 2021 furniture
  • « The Most Popular Museum Blog Posts of 2020
  • Treasures from the Collection: Staff Favorites - Winter 2021 »

TN State Museum logo
Resources
  • About Us
  • Press Room
  • Title VI
  • Venue Rental
  • Jobs
  • Public Records Policy
  • Museum and Copyright Policies
  • Museum Management
  • Douglas Henry State Museum Commission
  • Public Meetings
  • Social Media Guidelines
  • Contact
Contact

Bill Haslam Center
1000 Rosa L. Parks Blvd
Nashville, TN 37208

(615) 741-2692

(800) 407-4324

info@tnmuseum.org

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • Trip Advisor
Tennessee State Museum © 2023 Memphis Web Design by Speak