The first exhibition to bring overdue attention to a skilled craftsman whose racial identity was long overlooked.

Crafting Freedom: The Life and Legacy of Free Black Potter Thomas W. Commeraw is the first exhibition to bring overdue attention to a skilled craftsman whose racial identity was long overlooked. Born enslaved, Commeraw rose to prominence as a free Black entrepreneur, owning and operating a successful pottery. Over a period of two decades, Commeraw amassed property, engaged in debates over state and national politics, and participated in the life of New York City’s free Black community. The exhibition explores Commeraw’s multi-faceted history—as a craftsman, business owner, family man, and citizen.

Crafting Freedom presents more than 20 stoneware jars and jugs produced by Commeraw’s pottery between the late 1790s and 1819 alongside examples by his contemporaries, exploring the production, decoration, and markings of these beautiful utilitarian forms. The potter’s personal, political, and civic activity come alive through other artifacts, newspaper clippings, broadsides, books, and documents, including a certificate of freedom bearing Commeraw’s signature and first-hand accounts of his fraught journey to Sierra Leone with the American Colonization Society.

Major support for this exhibition is provided by the Decorative Arts Trust and Emily and James Satloff.