Willis McKeand: A Recently Discovered Urban Style Cabinetmaker of Goochland County, Virginia, 1802–1815

J. Christian Kolbe

This article examines the life and work of Willis McKeand (1782–1860), a Virginia cabinetmaker overlooked in the commonly consulted decorative arts literature. Particular attention is paid to his career in Goochland County, Virginia, from 1802 to 1815. Despite his absence in the literature, Willis McKeand is a particularly well-documented example of southern cabinetmakers escaping local and northern competition in urban areas and moving to the hinterlands and small towns.[1] The article deals first with McKeand’s training in Richmond under Samuel Swann and George and James Taylor. In this section, previously unknown information is provided on the Swann-Taylor cabinetmaking shop (Figure 1). The following section discusses the urban style furniture produced for McKeand’s patron, Thomas Miller, of Goochland County. The third section explores the working connection between Willis McKeand and James McAlester, a cabinetmaker who worked in McKeand’s shop and who also produced urban style furniture in the counties of Goochland … Continued

2025 Editor’s Welcome

Kim May

It is with deep gratitude that I welcome you to the 2025 issue of the Journal of Early Southern Decorative Arts, a milestone volume that marks the Journal’s fiftieth anniversary. For half a century, this publication has provided a forum for new scholarship, discoveries, and perspectives on the material culture of the early South. From its first issue in 1975 to today, the MESDA Journal has carried forward the mission of the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts (MESDA): to foster deeper understanding of the material culture and craft traditions of the early American South through rigorous research and thoughtful interpretation. This anniversary issue offers both reflection and renewal. Chief Curator Johanna M. Brown contributes a celebratory essay that looks back on MESDA’s history, from its founding vision, its decades of pioneering scholarship, to its enduring role as a center for research. This essay is especially fitting as 2025 also … Continued

A Story Worthy of the Telling: Sixty Years of MESDA

Johanna Brown

The Seed of an Idea On December 16, 1959, Frank Horton wrote a letter to then-president of Old Salem Museums & Gardens, Charles B. Wade. After years serving as director of restoration for Old Salem and overseeing the revitalization and restoration of the historic Moravian town, Horton proposed an idea. He wrote: The subject of the South’s history in this field has been greatly neglected by historians…. The South had a culture distinctive in many ways, principally brought by the rural economy of the area and its dependence, to a great extent, on England for manufactured goods. The … things produced in the South were often provincial in character, but is not this story worthy of the telling?[1] With this letter, Horton proposed the founding of the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts. Horton and his mother, Theo Taliaferro, had been antiques dealers and collectors for many years in Clarkesville, … Continued