Milwaukee museum returns vessels of enslaved potter David Drake to his descendants

Two stoneware vessels created by David Drake — the most productive enslaved potter in the United States — have been returned to his living descendants in an agreement reached on 9 September 2026 between the Milwaukee Art Museum and the Dave the Potter Legacy Trust, the organization founded by Drake’s own descendants. As the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports, this is the third agreement of its kind in the country, following similar returns by the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston in 2025 and the Georgia Museum of Art in July 2026.

The vessels had arrived at the museum in 2010 through a Chipstone Foundation exhibition, where they were displayed alongside the work of contemporary artist Theaster Gates. Chipstone bought them from an art dealer in 2013, and since 2015 they stood in the “The Dave Project” exhibition in the museum’s American art wing. In 2025, the Trust asked the museum to return the vessels, opening talks for an ethical and legal transfer between the museum and the Chipstone Foundation.

Efforts to return Drake’s ceramics to his descendants had begun as early as 2022, when the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York exhibited his vessels. According to the Trust, no such agreement had previously been reached between the descendants of an enslaved American and a museum. After the transfer, the museum itself bought back one of the vessels from the Trust, while the second remains owned by the descendants and will be exhibited at the museum as a long-term loan. Both vessels return to the public starting 30 September.

“Gathering your family, family you didn’t know” — said curator Kantara Souffrant, describing the emotion of the return moment. Yaba Baker, Drake’s fourth great-grandson, said the potter’s heritage and lineage would remain accessible to the public.

David Drake was born enslaved in 1801 in Edgefield, South Carolina. He could not own or profit from his work, but he signed some of his vessels — “He signed his name so we would know he was here.” Known for his distinctive technique, the large scale of his vessels and his poetic inscriptions, Drake is often regarded as “a kind of father of Black American craft.”