Ownership of two stoneware vessels by 19th-century enslaved potter David Drake has been transferred from the Milwaukee Art Museum to Drake’s descendants under an agreement with the Dave the Potter Legacy Trust, the museum announced on September 24.
The pots were gifted to the museum in 2026 by the Chipstone Foundation, which acquired them in 2013 from a dealer in a private sale.
The museum acquired one of the vessels, a signed and dated “1855” work, directly from the Trust. The second vessel, 1840-50, attributed to Drake, remains owned by his descendants and will continue to be displayed at the Milwaukee Art Museum through a long-term loan.
According to the Milwaukee Art Museum, “The agreement recognizes both Drake’s artistic significance and the circumstances under which his work was created. Enslaved for most of his life, Drake could neither own nor profit from the vessels he made. Transferring ownership of both works to his descendants gives the family a direct role in determining the works’ future.”
Yaba Baker, David Drake’s fourth great-grandson, said, “For our family, this agreement is about more than the ownership of these two vessels. It is about recognizing David Drake as our ancestor, whose voice, expertise, and creativity have endured for over 175 years.”
“On behalf of David Drake’s descendants, I am so grateful to Kim Sajet and her team at the Milwaukee Art Museum, and the Chipstone Foundation, for their instrumental role in making this restitution possible,” said Drake family counsel and advisor George Fatheree III. “Museums have historically embraced principles of ethical restitution for Jewish and Indigenous communities, and foreign governments, but these principles have not been applied to artwork created by enslaved Americans until David Drake.”
The jars are on view at the Milwaukee Art Museum. Visitors can continue to encounter Drake’s artistry, words, and history directly through the vessels themselves. The museum extends that experience to area students through docent-led tours that include The Dave Project, an installation on view at the Museum.
Created by the Chipstone Foundation, The Dave Project connects Drake’s achievements as a potter and poet with the history and material culture of the world in which he worked. Dialogue has been central to The Dave Project since its beginnings in 2010. The project brought Drake’s story and poetry into schools, libraries, churches, community centers, and other locations throughout greater Milwaukee, where participants interpreted his inscriptions and created their own responses to his words and work.
“We are grateful to the Chipstone Foundation for making this transfer possible and to David Drake’s descendants for choosing to keep these extraordinary works accessible in Milwaukee,” said Dr. Kim Sajet, Donna and Donald Baumgartner Director of the Milwaukee Art Museum. “Our responsibility is not simply to care for these vessels, but to share Drake’s artistry, words, and story with our visitors. This agreement also gives us an opportunity to listen and learn as his family, our partners, and members of our community help shape what comes next.”
A typesetter under his first enslaver, Drake is particularly known for the words he inscribed into clay. Beginning in 1834, he dated and signed vessels and wrote original verses on them despite laws in South Carolina restricting literacy among enslaved people. His surviving inscriptions address subjects including work, faith, humor, family, and personal identity. Following emancipation, the 1870 census recorded him as David Drake. He died some time before 1880.
Since 2025, other institutions have transferred ownership of Drake’s pottery to the Dave the Potter Legacy Trust, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Telfair Museums, Savannah, Georgia; and the Georgia Museum of Art. According to a statement by the NAACP, two collectors have also returned works.
Originally published in the November 2026 issue of Maine Antique Digest. © 2026 Maine Antique Digest
