Workboats of Core Sound

The N.C. Transportation Museum in Spencer opened a new offering in June in the Wagons, Wheels & Wings exhibit space. “Workboats of Core Sound” adds a bit of water to the wagons and wheels on display. 

“Workboats of Core Sound” features the photography of Lawrence Earley, as he has documented the working lives of the fishermen and boat builders of Core Sound, a part of North Carolina’s Outer Banks. The creation of these water vessels, specifically engineered for the area’s shallow waters, has transcended a simple trade skill to become a folk art itself. 

Typically created from memory, rather than designs on paper, the exhibit explores the beauty of these creations and different styles of boats. 

Featuring 50 black and white photographs, extended captions, and other interpretive materials on theses vessels, the exhibit will remain a part of Wagon’s, Wheels & Wings through December, 2011.

Conceived by Earley, the creation of the “Workboats of Core Sound” exhibit was a collaboration between Earley and the Core Sound Decoy Museum and Heritage Society. The exhibit has drawn financial support from the N.C. Arts Council, the N.C. Humanities Council and the Caroliniana Society. 

“Workboats of Core Sound” appeared previously at the Core Sound Decoy Museum and Heritage Society on Harker’s Island, the N.C. History Museum in Raleigh, and at the Burke Arts Council in Morganton. 

Lawrence Earley (www.larryearleyphotography.com) is the photographer and guest curator of this exhibit. Earley is a writer and photographer from Raleigh. He worked for twenty years with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, where he served as editor of Wildlife in North Carolina and also directed the Wildlife Commission’s educational publications unit. He wrote Looking for Longleaf: The Fall and Rise of an American Forest (University of North Carolina Press, 2004). Earley has photographed for more than thirty-five years and has exhibited photographs widely in North Carolina.