Description: Four columned wooden bed with canopy top, fancy scrollwork on head and footboards.
Historical Note: This four poster bed, signed "C.Lee" was probably made in New Orleans. It features column-shaped posts, a tall, triangular-shaped headboard, a low footboard, and carved scrollwork detailing. The bed, which has descended in the family of Lucy Virginia Smith French, may have been at the French residence, Forest Home, in McMinnville, Tennessee, during the Civil War. French's fine embroidered quilt, made for Forest Home from silk acquired in New Orleans, may have graced the bed, which has a matching cradle. Lucy Virginia Smith French retreated to Beersheba Springs for solace during some of the many occupations of McMinnville. Initially a Unionist, she was a reluctant Confederate whose anti-war sentiments filled the Civil War diaries she kept.
Institution: Private Collection, photograph by David Andrews
Publisher: Digital Initiatives, James E. Walker Library, Middle Tennessee State University
