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Local figure

Thomas Day

Thomas Day, a free Black cabinetmaker, was hired by the University of North Carolina in 1847 to make woodwork for the libraries of the Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies in Chapel Hill. From his shop in Milton he ran the largest furniture business in North Carolina, using steam-powered tools; its workers included free employees and people Day enslaved.

Source: Carolina Story, Virtual Museum of University History (UNC): Scrollwork by Thomas Day (1801-1861)

1 work about Thomas Day is indexed here.

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Life and Orange County connections

Storylines this person is part of, in date order. Each opens its own page, with its events date by date.

StorylineEnlarging the antebellum campus, 1840–18611840–1861 · 21 events · In 1840 President David L. Swain began the stucco finish on the brick college buildings, and by August 1841, with the session crowded beyond its rooms, the university had contracted for two new dormitory buildings. Swain then brought in the architect Alexander Jackson Davis, who first came to Chapel Hill in 1844. Davis's three-story additions to Old East and Old West, on which the masonry subcontractor Dabney Cosby put enslaved workmen, among them Osborne and his brother Albert, were finished in 1848 with halls for the Dialectic and Philanthropic societies, furnished by the free Black cabinetmaker Thomas Day. Smith Hall followed, named in 1852, and New East and New West, begun in 1858, were ready on July 31, 1861.

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 4 dated events in the chronology →

  1. Thomas Day opens a furniture shop in Hillsborough Thomas Day, then about twenty, came to Hillsborough in 1821 and opened a furniture-making shop, which he advertised as a stand, making walnut and mahogany furniture. He was still working there in 1824 and had moved to Milton by the mid-1820s. Place: HillsboroughSearch the index · Chipstone Foundation, American Furniture 2013: The Missing Chapter in the Life of Thomas Day
  2. Free Black woodworker Thomas Day advertises in Hillsborough Thomas Day, the free Black cabinetmaker, lived in Hillsborough for a time and advertised his business in local papers in 1824. People: Thomas Day Place: HillsboroughSearch the index · NC State Historic Preservation Office: Hillsborough Historic District Additional Documentation, National Register (OR0077ad, 2014), African American Heritage
  3. Free Black cabinetmaker Thomas Day supplies woodwork and furniture for the new society halls Thomas Day, the free Black cabinetmaker of Milton, North Carolina, supplied woodwork and furniture for the halls and libraries of the Dialectic and Philanthropic societies in A. J. Davis's north additions to Old East and Old West. Little names him, with the Virginia builder Dabney Cosby, among the craftsmen who carried out Davis's design. People: Thomas Day, Dabney Cosby Place: Old East and Old West, UNC campusNC Digital Collections: M. Ruth Little, The Town and Gown Architecture of Chapel Hill, 1795-1975 (2004), p. 23
  4. UNC Libraries opens the exhibit Slavery and the Making of the University University archivists mounted an exhibit on the enslaved and free Black people who built and served the early university, including cabinetmaker Thomas Day and poet George Moses Horton. People: George Moses Horton, Thomas Day Place: Wilson Library, UNCUNC University Library: Slavery and the Making of the University: Celebrating Our Unsung Heroes, Bond and Free

People named in the same events

People named in the same dated entries as Thomas Day, those sharing the most entries first. Each line links one of the shared entries in the chronology, where its source is cited. A shared entry shows these people in the same event, not how well they knew each other.

Indexed works

Works about or by Thomas Day. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it. Background reading appears below.

Bright leaf culture and Thomas Day : Orange and Caswell counties

Vernacular Architecture Forum (U.S.). Conference (2016 : Durham, N.C.) · 2016 · Vernacular Architecture Forum

A tour guidebook prepared for the 2016 Vernacular Architecture Forum conference in Durham, leading visitors through buildings in Orange and Caswell counties. It takes in the architecture of the bright leaf tobacco economy and the work of Thomas Day, the free Black cabinetmaker of Caswell County who worked in the middle of the nineteenth century.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Day, Thomas, Approximately 1801-approximately 1861.

UNC

Start at OCPL

Books in OCPL’s Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection whose titles, catalog subjects, or descriptions match this person. The Friends’ recommended starting points are labelled.

  • Rebecca Wall Collection · NC 749.213 THO Thomas Day, Cabinetmaker: An Exhibition at the North Carolina Museum of History, Raleigh, North Carolina, 1975 Day, Thomas · 1975

    Catalog of a 1975 exhibition at the North Carolina Museum of History in Raleigh on Thomas Day, the free Black cabinetmaker who worked at Milton in Caswell County from about 1823 until around 1861. His shop, which trained white apprentices, made furniture, church pews, mantels and interior woodwork; clients included Governor David S. Reid and the student societies of the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. The catalog runs to 75 illustrated pages with notes on sources.

Places in this person’s story

Buildings, schools, churches and other sites named in the dated events on this page, the most often named first. The map shows the 2 with a known location.

Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange, Orange County GIS, OpenStreetMap and a few other published sources named on each site’s page; town and community pins show approximate locations.

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