Newcomb Pottery

Newcomb College had been founded expressly to instruct young Southern women in liberal arts.

[6] When the Pottery was first established, any woman who studied art at Newcomb College was allowed to sell wares that she had decorated, provided it was judged to be adequate for sale by the faculty at the school.

Some early Newcomb College artists included:[6] Eventually the women who worked regularly with the Pottery were designated as craftsmen with a preference given to those who had completed an undergraduate degree and a later graduate studies program with the art department.

During that period the Pottery experimented with various glazes and designs, and won numerous awards at various exhibitions throughout the country and in Europe.

As the school entered the 1920s, new professors arrived and began to introduce influences from the 1913 International Exhibition of Modern Art.

[6] Members of the earlier pottery program including Kenneth Smith, Francis Ford and Sadie Irvine continued producing pieces with the Newcomb Guild.

However, the Newcomb Guild proved to be less popular than the earlier program and it effectively ended with Sadie Irvine's retirement in 1952.

[6] The Smithsonian Institution held an exhibition of Newcomb College Pottery in the Renwick Gallery of the American Art Museum from November 1984 to February 1985.