Women's History Month 2019: More Craftspeople!

One of the benefits of blogging is that readers provide additional information that adds to our collective knowledge. Case in point, my friend Lee who is also the author of the blog, Hunting and Gathering which looks at 19th and 20th century Georgia photographers. Make sure to read her latest post, The Unknown Women in Georgia Photography. 

Lee read my post yesterday on the US Craftperson Index and brought to my attention that the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts also has a directory, the MESDA Craftsman Database. This database includes "over 90,000 artisans and artists practicing 127 trades in the early American South."

Lee pointed out that "I get 500 hits with their keyword term “female artisan”;  with “Mary” as a keyword results were of all kinds, and I picked out 33 women, not all of whom were a Mary!"

So I did a search on the name Elizabeth and here are a few of the results. There were a total of 85.

I couldn't resist checking out this Elizabeth who was a quilter and an indentured servant. Look at all the information listed about her!

This is amazing and it's such a  huge find for a family historian. Great example of the wonderful information out there that you might otherwise not know to search. 

Thanks Lee!