Harriet Beecher Stowes (1811-96) Uncle Toms Cabin was a monumental success and was first published on March 20, 1852. Reportedly requiring 17 presses, operating nonstop, in order to keep up with the public demand, the anti-slavery novel became the top-selling book of the 19th century. It had a profound effect toward African Americans and slavery and played a role in the groundwork for the American Civil War. The message conveyed from Uncle Toms Cabin was still felt decades later all around the country, even in Virginia, where a red earthenware figural group was made, now in the collection of the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. The figural depicts Uncle Toms Cabin and was made in 1894 at the J. Eberly & Company Pottery in Strasburg. It was hand modeled by Levi Begerly and Theodore Fleet. The figural is inscribed, From Fishers Hill Battle Fields, September 1864. It commemorates the 30th anniversary of the Unions victory in General Philip Henry Sheridens (1831-88) Shenandoah Valley Campaign. It is well documented today that American potters, especially those in the Mid-Atlantic region, produced a wide variety of whimsical figures in the 19th century, whereas there were other potters, such as the Moravians in North Carolina, who made figural bottles. In fact, there is even a North Carolina bottle that New York City antiques dealers Garrison and Diana Stradling documented as having been given as a gift to a woman when she was a little girl. But there was also an emphasis with some potters who worked in the 19th century American utilitarian industry toward the production of red earthenware and stoneware buildings, houses and log cabins for various uses and reasons. These objects ranged from banks or money boxes to political statements to inkstands to birdhouses, along with everyday decorative objects that were displayed in the household. Similiar buildings were also made in England, as well as elsewhere in the United Kingdom, along with other countries. Among the notable American objects are examples produced in Philadelphia, such as a cold painted and white slip decorated red earthenware sculpture of Independence Hall. The building was constructed with open windows and a doorway, whereas the interior shows traces of soot, which likely indicates at one time that this object was illuminated from the inside with the candlelight shining through the windows and doorway. Another important type of production manufactured in Philadelphia in 1852 is a group of banks or money boxes made out of both stoneware and red earthenware by Thomas Haig Jr. The existing objects are all the same form, although they often vary in the decorative glazes that adorn each object, where some are decorated with cobalt, slip decoration or a Rockingham glaze. These objects feature a log cabin with four windows, two doors, a cider keg at each end and a figure of a raccoon. Additionally, they are thought to have been produced to commemorate William Henry Harrisons (1773-1841) Whig Party candidacy for the U.S. president in 1840. Sidenote, he passed away 31 days following inauguration, marking his presidency as the shortest in American history. One cobalt decorated stoneware cabin is displayed at the Brooklyn Museum in New York City, which is marked on the base in blue, T. Haig / 1852, as well inscribed, Thomas Haig / June 3rd / 1852. Another is owned by the Philadelphia Museum of Art with the inscription, July 4, 1852, although among the best examples is perhaps one that is from the collection of Garrison and Diana Stradling with a polychrome glaze that was published in Susan H. Myers book, Handcraft to Industry: Philadelphia Ceramics in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century. It is inscribed on the base, Thomas Haig Jr., and the date, March 16th 1852. The initials TH are stamped in front of the door of the cabin. According to Myers, Log Cabins were associated with Whig Party candidates in 1840 and 1844 and the association perhaps carried over to the 1852 contest between Franklin Pierce (Democrat) and Winfield Scott (Whig). There is a stoneware house in the collection of the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian Institute that was undoubtedly made alongside utilitarian cobalt decorated stoneware. But there must be more to this objects history, even though it is not currently documented. As part of the Preston Bassett Collection of Ridgefield, Conn., at the museum is a cobalt decorated stoneware house with open windows and a doorway that is attributed to the Mid-Atlantic region. It is also dated twice, 1841. The Bassett Collection came to the museum in 1978, as part of a donation of over 100 pieces of glass, earthenware and stoneware, mostly made in the northeast. The collective understanding of these types of objects as a group is an important subject today because it represents the American landscape and how potters perceived certain subjects in their community, whether it be historical structures, politics, patriotism, racial issues or just pure creativity. I think these objects are interesting glimpses into American society and culture from the 1800s. Sources Myers, Susan H. Handcraft to Industry: Philadelphia Ceramics in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institute, 1980. Stowe, Harriet Beecher. Uncle Toms Cabin. Boston: John P. Jewett and Company, 1852.