The University of North Carolina Press recently released the book "Thomas Day: Master Craftsman and Free Man of Color."

Co-authors Patricia Phillips Marshall and Jo Ramsay Leimenstoll explore the life and legacy of this accomplished artisan and entrepreneur from Milton, in Caswell County.

Day owned and operated one of North Carolina's largest cabinet shops prior to the Civil War, and his surviving furniture and architectural woodwork still represent the best of 19th-century craftsmanship and aesthetics.

Marshall, curator of decorative arts for the N.C. Museum of History and the Executive Mansion, and Leimenstoll, professor of interior architecture at UNC Greensboro, show how Day carefully charted a course for success in antebellum Southern society.

Beginning in the 1820s, he produced fine furniture for leading citizens, the movers and shakers of the Dan River region in North Carolina and Virginia.

In the 1840s and 1850s, he diversified his offerings to produce newel posts, stair brackets and distinctive mantels for many of the same clients. As demand for his services increased, the technological improvements Day incorporated into his shop in Milton contributed to the complexity of his designs.

Day's style, characterized by undulating shapes, fluid lines and spiraling forms, melded his own unique motifs with popular design forms, resulting in a distinctive interpretation readily identified to his shop. The 320-page book documents furniture in public and private collections, as well as architectural woodwork from private homes not previously associated with Day. The book provides information on more than 160 pieces of furniture and architectural woodwork that Day produced for 80 structures between 1835 and 1861.

Through in-depth analysis and hundreds of photographs and illustrations, Marshall and Leimenstoll provide a comprehensive perspective on and a new understanding of the powerful sense of aesthetics and design that mark Day's legacy.

Signed copies of "Thomas Day" will be available in the Museum Shop at the Museum of History.

For more information about "Thomas Day: Master Craftsman and Free Man of Color," go to http://uncpress.unc.edu/books/T-5982.html.

For additional details about the N.C. Museum of History, call (919) 807-7900 or access ncmuseumofhistory.org or Facebook. The museum is located at 5 E. Edenton St., across from the State Capitol. Parking is available in the lot across Wilmington Street.