LibGuides: W. Brent Burgin Archives: Thomas Blumer Collection

Thomas J. Blumer

The Thomas John Blumer Collection on the Catawba Nation, 1756 - 2009 contains a wide variety of materials that were created and collected by the donor over a 40-year period as he conducted research on the Catawbas and other Native American peoples, with a focus on the pottery and culture of the Catawbas.

The Collection contains slides and photographs taken by Dr. Thomas J. Blumer (as well as copies of older photographs that he borrowed from tribal members), audio tapes of interviews with Catawba leaders and potters, originals of diaries and correspondence with these leaders and potters, news clippings and related materials on the Catawbas, notes and research materials for lectures and publications by Dr. Blumer on the Catawba and other tribes of the Southeast, and detailed “journals” (notes, correspondence, emails, clippings, records of conversations, etc.) kept by Dr. Blumer on his interactions with the Catawbas.

The collection also provides documentation on the life, work, techniques, and products of Catawba potters.

Thomas J. Blumer Books

The Catawba Indian Nation of the Carolinas
The Catawba Indians are aboriginal to South Carolina, and their pottery tradition may be traced to 2,400 B.C. After the founding of Charleston in 1670, the Catawba population declined. Throughout subsequent demographic stress, the Catawba supported themselves by making and peddling pottery. They have the only surviving Native American pottery tradition east of the Mississippi.
Catawba Indian Pottery: The Survival of a Folk Tradition
A comprehensive study that traces the craft of pottery making among the Catawba Indians of North Carolina from the late 18th century to the present. When Europeans encountered them, the Catawba Indians were living along the river and throughout the valley that carries their name near the present North Carolina-South Carolina border. Archaeologists later collected and identified categories of pottery types belonging to the historic Catawba and extrapolated an association with their protohistoric and prehistoric predecessors.
Catawba Nation: Treasures in History
In Catawba Nation: Treasures in History, Thomas J. Blumer seeks to preserve and present the history of this resilient people. Blumer, who served for nineteen years as the Catawba tribal historian and still works with the tribe, chronicles Catawba history from the first contact with Spanish explorers to their present-day fame as makers of traditional Catawba pottery.
Bibliography of the Catawba
A bibliography with over 4,000 entries on the Catawba Nation of the Carolina piedmont. The book surveys virtually every issue of every newspaper in the Catawba's vicinity for the past 150 years, and also cites government reports, travel accounts, scholarly works, and manuscripts.
Catawba Clay: Pottery from the Catawba Nation February 4 - April 15, 2000.

TJB Research Collection

Thomas J. Blumer
Thomas J. Blumer Collection on Catawba Indians, 1756-2008 Extensive research files collected by Thomas J. Blumer (TJB) documenting the history and culture of the Catawba Indians of the Carolinas and elsewhere; includes correspondence and journals written by Blumer and Catawba Indians; oral history interviews; clippings and other published and unpublished research; legal and administrative records; and slides and photographs. Also includes material on other ethnic or linguistic Native American groups, such as the Pamunkey Indians of Virginia.
TJ Blumer Collection Finding Aid
TJ Blumer Collection of Catawba Photographs and Slides