Milwaukee Museum Returns Two Jars by Enslaved Potter David Drake to Family
Two jars made by enslaved potter David Drake now belong to his descendants, not the museum that held them.
The Milwaukee Art Museum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, has transferred ownership of two stoneware jars to Drake's heirs. Restitution, the formal return of ownership, was completed this month. Both jars will remain on display at the museum The New York Times.
Drake, also known as Dave the Potter, laboured as an enslaved potter in antebellum South Carolina Milwaukee Art Museum Blog. Antebellum here means the period before the American Civil War. He built large storage vessels, including 40-gallon pots Milwaukee Art Museum Blog, and famously inscribed his work with short verses Milwaukee Art Museum Annual Report.
The pots stay put. Ownership changes. Public access does not.
The transfer was organised with the Dave the Potter Legacy Trust. Since 2022, the Trust has worked to identify Drake's living descendants and return his vessels to them Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Milwaukee is not the first institution to reach such an agreement. In October 2025 the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston agreed to return Drake's work The New York Times. In that case the Boston museum resolved ownership of two works, returning one outright to the family and buying the other back from the heirs. In July, the Georgia Museum of Art in Athens, Georgia, reached its own agreement with Drake's descendants ArtsATL.
Prices help explain the attention. In 2021 a vessel by Drake sold for US$1.56 million, against an estimate range reported at the time, a price reported as a record for American pottery The New York Times.
What makes this stand out is the arrangement after the paperwork. The family holds title. The museum keeps the jars on its shelves for visitors. For anyone in Milwaukee who wants to stand in front of them, little changes, except the label describing who owns them.
