Teapot

Object NameTeapot

Artist / Maker Etta May Budd (American, 1863 - 1952)

Manufacturer Haviland (French, founded 1842)

DateMay 18, 1889

OriginUSA

MediumCeramic

DimensionsA: 6 1/8 × 8 1/4 × 4 1/4 in. (15.6 × 21 × 10.8 cm) B: 2 × 3 1/4 in. (5.1 × 8.3 cm)

ClassificationsDecorative Arts, Ceramics

Credit LineTransferred from Parks Library. In the Farm House Museum Collection, Farm House Museum, University Museums, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa.

Object number92.7.3ab

Status

On view

Collections

CultureFrench / American

Label TextThis French Haviland teapot with irises, along with the two framed floral watercolors, was painted by Etta May Budd. Notice the image at right of the bottom of the teapot with her signature and date. The daughter of Horticulture professor and farm superintendent Joseph Budd, Etta May lived in the Farm House with her family in 1877. Budd was a talented artist who eventually joined the art faculty at Simpson College where she met George Washington Carver. Carver entered Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa on September 9, 1890. The college, then seventeen faculty members and approximately three hundred students, was located on a small, three-building campus. Carver was originally admitted into the preparatory department and took coursework in grammar, arithmetic, essays, and etymology. He joined the art department during the winter term of 1891 and took voice and piano in addition to other coursework. Etta May Budd was initially doubtful a black man was suited to the art department, but as an instructor she quickly recognized the raw talent in the young Carver and played a significant role in convincing him to attend Iowa Agricultural College in Ames to pursue a career in botany. She made contacts to arrange his transfer and when Carver was not granted adequate amenities due to his race, Etta May intervened on his behalf. Carver received both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree from Iowa Agricultural College, became IAC’s first Black professor, and then went on to a forty-five-year long career at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama where he revolutionized American agricultural production. Of Etta Budd, Carver wrote to Louis Pammel in 1922: “From here [Indianola, Iowa] I went to Ames, Iowa to take a course in Agriculture, persuaded to do so by my art teacher, Miss Etta M. Budd, to whom I am greatly indebted for whatever measure of success that has come to me. Miss Budd helped me in whatever way she could; often going far out of her way to encourage and see that I had such things as I needed. During my six years in College, her interest in me never waned.” (Correspondence, Carver to Pammel, May 5, 1922. University Archives, Special Collections, Iowa State University Library)

MarkingsCFH / GDM Artist signature on bottom of teapot, "Etta Budd" May 18, 1889

Locations