Images(2)

Armchair

Dateca. 1840

Attributed to Kentucky State Penitentiary Inmates

OriginAmerica, Kentucky, Frankfort

MediumTulip poplar, hickory, and cane

DimensionsOH: 36 1/2” OW: 19 7/8” OD: 18 1/8”

Credit LineGift of the Thomasville History Center

Object number2021-19

DescriptionArmchair of continuous-arm form; back consists of two concave rectangular slats and a concave tablet-form crest rail with rounded top corners; four round legs with tapered feet; front legs above the seat rail with double ring turning, slightly narrowed section, and single ring turning at the top continuing into the shaped arm; two parallel rounded stretchers on each side; original woven herringbone pattern cane seat.
Label TextThe Kentucky Penitentiary in Frankfort, KY, established in 1798, was the first prison west of the Allegheny Mountains. By 1808, prisoners were engaged in trade skills, such as blacksmithing, coopering, tin smithing, and furniture making to offset the cost of incarceration. The earliest examples of the “continuous armchair” style, such as this chair, date to around 1810 and were made in Frankfort through the 1850s. Each chair presents unique features while also reflecting the distinct style of furniture common to the prison workshop, and they follow cultural stylistic trends occurring outside the prison, though they are separate from what is being produced in the larger Frankfort furniture community.

One other piece in the Colonial Williamsburg collection with a connection to the penitentiary is a pier table with a dolomitic limestone (“Kentucky River marble”) top that was likely quarried by the inmates of the same penitentiary (2015-347).
ProvenanceThis chair is one of an associated set of 8 from the Thomasville History Center in Georgia. Mr. Leroy Edwards, Sr. donated the set of chairs in two batches: the first two chairs in 1972 (1972.058), the other six chairs in 1978 (1978.17). Per the Thomasville History Center records, the chairs had been used at the MacIntyre & Edwards law office in Thomasville and at the Boxhall plantation in Thomas County. Mr. Edwards was the business partner of William (Bill) Fraser MacIntyre, Sr. who was the grandson of Archibald Thompson MacIntyre (1822-1900) of Boxhall Plantation (The original house burned in 1930 and was replaced by the current dwelling.) It is believed that the chairs descended in the MacIntyre family.

While the MacIntyre family apparently had no ties to Kentucky, other Thomasville inhabitants did, including Elizabeth "Pansy" Ireland Poe (1897-1978), who also owned Shawnee Farm (~800 acres) in Mercer Co., Ky. near Pleasant Hill. Mrs. Poe's Thomasville home, Pebble HIll plantation, contained other furniture from Kentucky including a cherry corner cupboard, suggesting she may have brought pieces there from Kentuky. Other 20th century Thomasville inhabitants are known to have collected Kentucky furniture, suggesting another way these chairs may have migrated to Georgia.