The sight of this little settlement of Moravians is highly curious and interesting. Between 200 and 300 persons of this sect here assembled live in brotherly love and set a laudable example of industry, unfortunately too little observed and followed in this part of the country." So wrote the statesman William Loughton Smith (1758-1812) in his journal in 1791, describing the industriousness of the Moravian settlers in Salem, North Carolina. MESDA, over the years has identified sixty-one North Carolina Moravians who worked as joiners, cabinetmakers, turners, chairmakers, or as apprentices in those trades between 1754 and about 1850. What makes these statistics particularly remarkable is that many examples of the furniture these artisans produced are exhibited in their original context--the extant houses and shops of the Moravians who settled Salem, several of which are now museum buildings in the Historic Town of Salem.