Vase

Object NameVase

Designer Saturday Evening Girls (American (Boston), 1899 - 1920)

Studio Paul Revere Pottery (American (Boston, MA), 1906 - c. 1920)

Date1919

MediumEarthenware

Dimensions8 3/4 × 3 3/8 diameter × 8 in. (22.2 × 8.6 × 20.3 cm) Other: 3 1/8 in. diameter (7.9 cm)

ClassificationsDecorative Arts, Ceramics

Credit LineTransferred from the Applied Arts Department. In the Farm House Museum Collection, Farm House Museum, University Museums, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa.

Object number81.9.78

Status

Not on view

Collections

Decorative Arts

CultureAmerican

Label TextThe Saturday Evening Girls started in the 1890s with three women. All three wanted to better the lives of young immigrant women by involving them in the arts. Helen Storrow, a wealthy Boston philanthropist, supported the North Bennet Street Industrial School. A North End trade school, it gave classes to young immigrants in printing, stone carving, woodwork, cement work, sewing and dressmaking. She also befriended Edith Guerrier, a librarian and writer who worked at a North End nursery. Guerrier started the Saturday evening story hour, exposing immigrant girls to literature, drama and dance. She added lectures by such prominent Bostonians as Edward Everett Hale, Charles Eliot Norton and social reformer Vida Scudder. Shortly after the turn of the century, Guerrier and her partner Edith Brown, an artist, took a trip to Europe paid for by Storrow. In Britain, they were exposed to the Arts and Crafts Movement. Proponents advocated traditional craftsmanship using simple forms and rejected the fussy over-decoration of the Victorian era. Guerrier and Brown came up with the idea of teaching pottery to the girls so they could make money in a clean and safe environment. In 1908, Storrow agreed to fund the pottery—a beachhead for the Arts and Crafts Movement in the United States. She bought a large townhouse on Hull Street and put a pottery and kiln in the basement. She named it after the North End’s most prominent resident, Paul Revere. The rooms were filled with fresh flowers and light, and the girls listened to music and dramatic reading as they worked. The Saturday Evening Girls also worked an 8-hour day instead of the usual 12, had half Saturdays off and paid vacations. One employee, Sara Galner was offered a job making pottery for $4 a week. She turned it down at first because she made more as a dressmaker. She then negotiated a deal where she and the other girls earned $7 a week. Eventually Galner, the most talented ceramic artist, got a raise to $10 a week. She went on to manage a Paul Revere Pottery shop in Washington, D.C. The Paul Revere Pottery lasted until 1942. Today, Paul Revere Pottery is among the most collectible Arts and Crafts style ceramics. Source: Excerpted from “The Saturday Evening Girls Make Pottery History” blog of the New England Historical Society, updated 2021. https://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/saturday-evening-girls-make-pottery-history/

MarkingsBottom of vase in black paint S.E.G. 3-19 / Museum object number 81.9.78

PeriodArts and Crafts

Locations