Earth into Art: The Flowering of American Art Pottery

The 1876 Centennial International Exposition in Philadelphia, with its displays of fine French and Asian ceramics, helped to ignite a virtual craze among American women for china painting. From this seedbed of passionate hobbyists came the leaders and artists who made American Art Pottery an international success story. It was the first truly American art to receive acclaim both in the United States and abroad. China painting, at this pivotal post-war juncture in American history, was seen as an acceptable vocation for women, and no women were more important to the flowering of the art pottery industry in America than Maria Longworth Nichols Storer (1849–1932), who founded Rookwood Pottery, and Mary Louise McLaughlin (1847–1939), an artist and author who promoted china painting as a profitable pursuit for women. Their talent, business acumen, and innovations established Cincinnati as the center of the nation’s art pottery industry. This exhibition provides a window on key developments in American Art Pottery, including the contributions of Storer, McLaughlin, and others. For the show, the Morse has drawn from its extensive collection of pottery to show the shapes, glazes, themes, techniques, and finishing methods that were second to none in the world.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website