"The other dresser was a wedding present to my mother and father. I have not changed anything on it and it is still in the way my mother had it. It's easy to do because she had a list of all the wedding presents.... I always think of that as my mum and dad's dresser but this is my dresser.... This one is for me."--E.

In an interview in the early 1990s, E. contrasted her living-room dresser, preserved almost as a family shrine, with the one in the parlor that was her dresser. This latter piece was a hybrid of recently constructed shelves atop an older sideboard, but the furniture's quality was of no particular importance; it was the display ...