EDUCATION IN CERAMIC ART IN THE UNITED STATES DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of the Ohio State University DOROTHY WILSON PERKINS, B. F. A., M. A M HH*« The Ohio State University 1956 Approved byt School of Fine and Applied Arta TUBUS OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAOE « INTRODUCTION................................... 1 PART It DEVELOPMENTS PRIOR TO 1900 1. EARLY DEVELOPMENTS IN MANUAL, INDUSTRIAL, AND ART EDUCATION................................... U 2. NINETEENTH CENTURY DEVELOPMENTS IN CINCINNATI, . 31 3. NINETEENTH CENTURY DEVELOPMENTS IN NEW ORLEANS • . 50 L. NINETEENTH CENTURY LITERATURE PERTAINING TO CERAMIC A R T ...................... ........ £6 PART II. THE ESTABLISHMENT OF FORMAL EDUCATION IN CERAMIC AlF? 9. CHARLES FERGUS BINNS............................ 82 6. LITERATURE OF THE POPULAR PRESS PERTAINING TO , CERAMIC ART, 1900 - 1 9 2 5 ........................ 120 7. THE AMERICAN CERAMIC SOCIETY.................... 130 8. ADELAIDE ALSOP ROBINEAU AND THE CERAMIC NATIONALS. 176 9. ARTHUR EUGENE BAQG3.............................. 139 10. DEVELOPMENTS AT NON-COLLEGE LEVELS.............. 220 PART IIIi SURVEY 11. EDUCATION IN CERAMIC ART AT THE COLLEGE LEVEL - A NATIONAL SURVEY ....................... 256 CONCLUSION..................................... 273 APPENDIXES................................................ 290 BIBLIOGRAPHY............................................. 302 ii INTRODUCTION Since that early day when some child of primitive man fashioned a crude bowl - just as he had seen his elders do - there has been continuous "ceramic education" in some degree. Kan's knowledge in this art, as in all others, passed from father to son, from master to apprentice, from teacher to student. The present study is concerned with formal education in ceramic art, particularly at the college level, as that education has evolved in this country from the turn of the century* The term "education in ceramic art" as used here roea: a those studies con­ cerned with the processes and products of earthy media nade permanent by fire and concerned with design as well. Courses of study offered in this aria are given such titles as "ceramic art," "ceramics," "pottery," and "clay work." This investigation is not concerned with teaching methods or specific course content as these apply to education in ceramic art. The artist and education, per se, are also matters outside the content of the work. It is concerned, rather, with a particular phase of education, "art," and the inception and growth of a particular phase of that education, "ceramic art." It is limited to the United States. Three questions are proposed as a means of increasing under­ standing of the subject matter under consideration. They aret 1 2 (1) Hem has education in ceramic art at the college level achieved its present position?} (2) fthat is the present position?} and (3) ft hat future position may be anticipated? The first question has prompted an investigation of the institutions and individuals who have contributed to the establish ment and growth of ceramic art as a field of formal study. The term, institutions, is used broadly. It refers to established elements within our culture* e.g., education, the press, and the oz'gar ization of individuals for common ends. The Investigation undertaken as a response to the first question hns resulted in an historical survey covering the last part of the nineteenth century and the twentieth century to the present. Chapters One through Ten present this material, recognizing those "institutions and individuals" previously noted. The second query - fthat is the present position of education in ceramic art at the college level? - prompted the statistical survey which is set forth in Chapter Eleven. The results of this survey provide a partial view of the present position. It is considered further in the Conclusion. The third query - fthat future position may be anticipated for education in ceramic art at the college level? - also receives consideration in the Conclusion. The present study brings together for the first time a number of factors pertinent to the inception and growth of education in 3 ceramic art. The full subject has not received, to the author's knowledge, either puclishod or unpublished written consideration. It may be said, In fact, that the development of education in ceramic art has been so rapid - almost hastily engendered and fostered - and so recent that those caught up in its growth have had little time for the gathering of historical data or reflection upon that data. The large body of historical material presented in Chapters One through Ten may appear to include some extraneous matter. If such should be the case, there is a reason for its inclusion. It is hoped that this study will serve - singly or together with those which others may undertake - as a basis for furthering under*- standirg of education in ceramic art. It is toward further study and understanding that the present work assumes broad proportions. PART I DEVELOPMENTS PRIOR TO 1900 #** Chapter 1 EARLY DEVELOPMENTS IN MANUALf INDUSTRIAL AND ART EDUCATION Formal education in ceramic art in this country did not, of course, spring suddenly into full bloom in 1900, A variety of grounds gave rise to the emergence of this particular field of study. One of the grounds was that of education, both general and specific, classical and technical. The progession of changing concepts in education - a progression from concepts favoring intellectual development to those favoring practical activities — has been readily apparent in the United States. Despite the fact that education here has shifted the emphasis from the classical education of a few to the practical education of the many, however, the very seeds of the shifting emphasis were sown in Europe. It may be said that education in ceramic art, combining as it does manual and technical education with education in design, is particularly indicative of a culmination of educational concerns. Education, in general, has dealt successively with these three areas, seeking to offer studies adequate to the economic, social, and psychological needs of the citizenry. 5 Although there have been many period* throughout man's history when intellectual pursuit* have been placed in esteem, high above manual pursuits, there appears to have been but. little concern over the possibility that such an elevation could have any but beneficial effect. It is to John Locke, the English seventeenth century philosopher, that recognition is owed as the first to set forth a need for some degree of manual exercise. His Some Thoughts Concerning Education, published in 1693, recommended some manual training fcr the sons of the well-to-do, even some drawing if the gentlemen did not object too atrongly. Ideally, the training was to have some therapeutic value and a social value achieved by instilling in the student respect for labor and those who labor. The French philosopher, Jean Jacques Rousseau, in the eighteenth century forwarded the advocacy of manual training in Emile, published in 1762. The work was concerned with the education of fcialle, to be conducted **in the field," as it were, as much as possible. Thus some knowledge of the manual arts was to be gained through study with a workman in his shop — not in the classroom - through doing, not talking. Whereas Rousseau's student was to learn in the shop, Johann Bernhard Basedow related the manual arts more closely to the classroom. Basedow continued the line of the "Sense Realists" who stressed the importance of physical as well as mental activity. Each child was taught a handcraft for educational and social reasons. Johann Heinrich Pestaloszi, whose work cowered the last quarter of the eighteenth century and the first quarter of the nineteenth, carried out wore fully than Basedow the theories of sense impressionism in learning. Another Swiss, Phillip Emanuel von Fellenberg, was for a time associated with Pestaloszi. Whereas Pestalozzi was motivated largely by hi.8 heart, his love for children, and his concern for the poor, von Fellenberg was much more the business man* He established a type of farm-school which combined elementary education, farming, and trade practices. His school was extremely popular for a time and entertained many visitors from various European countries as well as from the United States. It may be said that his school contained the germ of the idea which later resulted in colleges of agricultural and mechanical arts as they developed in this country. Friedrich Froebel, in the first half of the nineteenth century, was particularly concerned with the education of small children, but his theoriec concerning their education - by "doing" - carried over into work with older children as well. TWo of Froebel1s im ovations were his "gifts" and "occupations." The former consisted of material objects with which the child could carry out the con­ structive play of arranging! the latter provided certain materials which could be transformed in creative activity. One of the materials Froebel favored was clay, which could be readily manipulated. F. Froebel, Education of Man, p. 281*. 7 Robert Owen, e cotton Bill proprietor in Scotland, ex- tablished a school for the poor children of New Lanark! it was a philanthropic enterprise. Ur. Owen came to the United State* in 182$, where he established a school at New Harmony, Indiana. The school was as nerrly self-sufficient as possible, children from the ages of two and three upward practicing various trades to sustain themselves and the school. A visitor commented that children from the ages of five to twelve worked in a "...pottery, 2 (which had) two rather large furnaces." Many of the earliest "schools" were established, both abroad and in the United States, for children of the poor. Although these frequently started as Institutions for the "saving of the souls" of the children, it soon became evident that even the best- saved souls needed to learn trades. Ihus the Ragged Schools of Ihgland and Scotland were among the earliest "vocational" schools.