North Dakota Pottery

North Dakota Pottery

North Dakota in the United States has been the scene of modern era pottery production using North Dakota clays since the early 1900s. In 1892 a study was published by Earle Babcock, a chemistry instructor at the University of North Dakota (UND) that reported on the superior qualities of some of the North Dakota clays for pottery production. The UND School of Mines began operations in 1898 with Earle Babcock as director. With the assistance of several eastern potteries, pottery made from North Dakota clay was first displayed at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair.

From this beginning, a Ceramics Department was founded at the University and a talented potter, Margaret Kelly Cable, was hired as its director. The university trained many of the people later involved in other pottery ventures within the state. These include Charles Grantier who worked at Dickinson Clay Products Company (Dickota) and later served as state director of the WPA Ceramics Project. Laura Taylor (Hughes) preceded Charles Grantier as state director at WPA and later became a partner in the Wahpeton Pottery Company (Rosemeade) which operated from 1940 until 1961. The WPA project was active first in Dickinson, North Dakota and then in Mandan, North Dakota from 1936 until 1942.

In addition to the above students trained in the regular ceramics program at UND, Mrs. Carey (Corbert) Grant, the arts and handicrafts instructor at the Turtle Mountain School at Belcourt, North Dakota completed a summer teacher training course at UND and began teaching students at the school to make pottery. The pottery made by the students was sold to customers throughout the United States. This operation lasted from 1936 until about 1942.

Other potteries that operated in the state by people not trained at the University were Ceramics by Messer which operated in Bowman, North Dakota from 1952 until 1956, Little Heart Ceramics which was part of L&H Manufacturing's accessories business which produced cattle figurines and specialty advertising items from 1959 until 1968, and Three Tribes Stoneware Inc which began as a training project on the Fort Berthhold Indian Reservation at New Town, North Dakota in 1967. This company produced contemporary Indian Stoneware until it closed in 1975.