With the completion of my 697-page eighth book, titled, An Influential Family of Early Potters: The Clarks of New Hampshire and Related Businesses, which will be sent to the printer very soon, and should be available to purchase by Christmas, I wanted to give an update on the Western New York books that I am currently working on, titled, America's Great Awakening and Migration: The Red Earthenware of Western New York.
The Western New York books will be published in 2025; the two-volume set will be published together and will include over 1,200 pages. The books are basically complete now with the finishing touches being added over the next month or so. I am hoping for a publication date sometime in the late winter or spring of 2025.
Furthermore, I have worked with basically every museum, historical society and archaeology department in the western part of New York State that owns artifacts and pottery related to this region's red earthenware production. The book will also include tons of never before published archaeology, museum collections and private collections.
Every title in this book series from the American Northeast has been rewarding, but there have been so many discoveries made along the way in preparation of this publication; it began years ago working on two research articles for publication with the Das Haus Museum in Bergholz, Niagara County, New York to some of the most recent discoveries found in the collection of the LeRoy, New York Historical Society, along with so much in between, such as the significance of production in Erie County, New York, and identifying some of the previously unknown wares made by the Mormon leader Heber Kimball (1801-1868) in Mendon, New York before 1830. There was even the exciting realization of learning about objects that were thought to have made elsewhere in America, which have since proven to have been made in Western New York. But my biggest take away from working on this material is that the Western New York region produced some of the most dramatic glazed and slip decorated red earthenware made anywhere in America in the nineteenth century, much of which is not widely known.
Nevertheless, there will be 37 chapters in the two books covering red earthenware production from every county in Western New York that is known to have sustained some type of red earthenware production. The last section of volume 2 will also cover red earthenware production from the remainder of New York, which will include short essays on potters, archaeology and objects spanning central New York, the eastern part of the state, the most northern part of the state, the Hudson River region, New York City and Long Island. The Introduction in volume 1 will also include a lot of great archaeology from New York City.
An Update on the Forthcoming Western New York Books
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