Abstract Book of the 3rd Global Conference on Gender Studies
Year: 2025
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The Bayou and Beyond: An Examination of American Regionalism in Women-Operated Potteries
Kate Alley
ABSTRACT:
This paper seeks to examine the ways in which women-operated potteries were interpreting the world around them, with the goal of identifying ways that American regionalism impacted women in different parts of the country. This is done through a comparative analysis of the Newcomb Pottery (located in New Orleans, Louisiana), the Paul Revere Pottery (located in Boston, Massachusetts), and the Rookwood Pottery (located in Cincinnati, Ohio). These potteries are located in three different regions of the United States, namely the American South, New England, and Midwest regions. Through examining the visual iconography of these potteries, I have determined that the Newcomb Pottery has the strongest sense of regional identity, as demonstrated through the strong adherence to using local flora as a recurring design motif. This serves as an indication of the ties that the American South has to the land and an agricultural way of life that would have been even more prominent during the years following the Civil War in which the Newcomb Pottery was founded.
Keywords: pottery, art history, America, identity, American South