Shown here is a nineteenth-century red earthenware butter churn, complete with its original lid and wooden dasher. I acquired this piece many years ago in New Hampshire. The only other example I have seen is in the collection of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. The museum acquired their churn out of Virginia, along with a nineteenth century James River, Virginia stoneware crock, as part of the Mary E. Maxwell Fund in 1974.
Established as a lasting tribute to her legacy, the Mary E. Maxwell Fund is a designated museum endowment used to purchase and preserve historic American artifacts. The fund was created by Miss Mary E. Maxwell (1868-1949), an avid American art collector, world traveler, and dedicated cultural patron active during the early-to-mid twentieth century. Driven by a lifelong passion for global history, Maxwell journeyed extensively to amass an eclectic private collection of rare antiquities, spanning from intricate Southeast Asian musical instruments to delicate Chinese porcelains. In the 1940s, she generously gifted these international treasures to the Smithsonian to ensure their permanent preservation, and upon her passing, her estate finalized the namesake endowment fund.
Today, this vital financial resource allows federal institutions to actively acquire significant pieces of material culture at auctions or from private collections, rather than relying solely on private donations. At the Smithsonian, the fund frequently secures early American utilitarian crafts, such as nineteenth century regional pottery and domestic textile equipment. It is similarly utilized by the National Gallery of Art to expand federal archives with historic American prints, etchings, and engravings, ensuring that Maxwell's passion for preservation continues to safeguard early American decorative arts.
Please Stay Tuned...Much More to Come...
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