Vase
Object NameVase
Artist / Maker
Mary Yancey
(American, 1902-1992)
Studio
Iowa College Pottery
(American (Ames, IA), Iowa State College, 1920 - 1939)
Datec. 1930
MediumEarthenware
Dimensions7 in. (17.8 cm)
ClassificationsDecorative Arts, Ceramics
Credit LineGift of Mark and Marie Latta. In the permanent collection, Brunnier Art Museum, University Museums, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa.
Object numberUM2017.142
Status
Not on viewCollections
CultureAmerican
Label TextFrom the University Museums Collections Handbook, vol. 2, 2025:
Mary Yancey studied at the Sophie Newcomb College at Tulane University in New Orleans, graduating with a degree in design. She was an instructor in Ohio before being hired by Iowa State College, Ames, in 1924. She taught modeled pottery courses in Home Economics and designed and decorated pottery made for the Ceramics Engineering department for commercial sale. Newcomb College Pottery, created where Yancey attended school, was a well-known commercial pottery that employed women to decorate pottery made from regional clays with local natural imagery. Paul Cox, who had also worked at Newcomb, was the head of Ceramics Engineering at Iowa State College and with Yancey created the Iowa State College Pottery in a similar style to Newcomb – using local clays and native natural imagery. Yancey was the artist, choosing the designs and colors that worked best for each form, while Cox and his male students threw the pottery.
By 1928, the popularity of the pottery began to dwindle and less was made, with Yancey leaving Iowa in 1930. Before she left, she designed and decorated this commemorative vase in honor of Carrie Chapman Catt’s commencement address in 1921, the first by a woman at Iowa State College. Green was a typical ISC Pottery color, but in this case on a more unique vase shape. The thistle imagery scrolls beautifully across the body of the vase, demonstrating Yancey’s ability to design and decorate with great skill and sensitivity.
MarkingsMary Yancy’s Y in a circle mark and impressed ISC Ames mark.
Locations
- (not entered) Iowa State University, Brunnier Main Storage
