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 TextFrom the University Museums Collections Handbook, vol. 2, 2025: The French Haviland teapot with irises, along the two framed ﬂoral watercolors, were painted by Etta May Budd. Etta May lived in the Farm House with her family in 1877 while her father, Joseph Lancaster Budd, was a horticulture professor and the model farm superintendent. Etta May Budd graduated from Iowa Agricultural College (IAC) in 1882. After graduating, she pursued advanced studies in art in New York, Chicago, and Boston. Once she returned to Iowa, Budd taught art at her alma mater from 1889 to 1890. After being at IAC for a year, Budd moved to teach art at Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa, where she would meet and mentor a young George Washington Carver. It was on Budd’s recommendation that Carver transferred to IAC in Ames to study horticulture in 1891. She believed it would be more practical for Carver to pursue another one of his interests, plant science, over art. Budd suggested he attend IAC, where her father was head of the Department of Horticulture. Carver became IAC’s ﬁrst Black graduate and professor, and later a world-renowned botanist and agricultural researcher, all while maintaining his passion for creating art. __________________________________________ Lable #2: This 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