Women, Art, & Social Change: The Newcomb Pottery Enterprise

Harriet Coulter Joor, decorator, Joseph Meyer, potter, Vase with a Design of Daffodils, ca. 1903. Ceramic. Newcomb Art Collection, Tulane University 2012.6.2.

Women, Art, and Social Change: The Newcomb Pottery Enterprise brings together works created during the 45-year lifespan of the Newcomb enterprise—an artistic and commercial venture which provided a rare opportunity for Southern women to support themselves and resulted in one of the most vital workshops of the American Arts and Crafts movement, including iconic pottery as well as textiles, metalwork, jewelry, and bookbinding.

Newcomb Pottery, established in 1895 as an educational experiment of H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College (Tulane University’s former women’s college), is considered one of the most significant makers of American art pottery of the twentieth century, both critically acclaimed and highly coveted. Women, Art, and Social Change builds on Princeton’s longstanding role in shaping public understanding of the Arts and Crafts movement.

Women, Art, and Social Change: The Newcomb Pottery Enterprise is organized by the Newcomb Art Gallery at Tulane University and the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, and is supported in part by the Henry Luce Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. The exhibition at Princeton has been made possible by the Frances E. and Elias Wolf, Class of 1920, Fund; the Kathleen C. Sherrerd Program Fund for American Art; and the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional support has been provided by the Allen R. Adler, Class of 1967, Exhibitions Fund; the Curtis W. McGraw Foundation; and the Friends of the Princeton University Art Museum.