Potter

The Milwaukee Art Museum has returned works by David Drake, an enslaved 19th-century potter from South Carolina, to his descendants. Drake, known for signing his large stoneware vessels at a time when enslaved people were rarely permitted literacy, is regarded as one of the most significant American ceramic artists. The transfer is being discussed as a notable example of museums returning cultural heritage to families of enslaved people.

The Milwaukee Art Museum has returned a group of ceramic vessels made by an enslaved potter to the potter's descendants. The transfer returns works created by an enslaved artisan to their family, making it a notable case of a US museum restituting objects in its collection through direct return to descendants rather than sale or transfer to another institution.

A Milwaukee museum has returned pots made by David Drake, the renowned enslaved potter of the American South, to his descendants. Drake, who worked in South Carolina in the 1800s and famously signed and inscribed his stoneware, is among the most celebrated African American artists of his era. The restitution is drawing attention as part of a wider movement by US institutions to return objects made by enslaved people to their rightful heirs.