Red earthenware production began altogether in Massachusetts in the seventeenth century with at least one documented pottery operating in Charlestown, Massachusetts. As the years passed in the eighteenth century, potteries began to appear all over coastal Massachusetts, and this spread continued after the American Revolution into the 1800s, with basically all areas of the state engulfed with red earthenware production. Some of the most significant businesses were located in Essex County and Bristol County. This virtual conference will analyze production from different angles, including scholarship, archaeology and existing museum collections. Speakers include:

Day 1

Justin Thomas, a collector, researcher and writer about American pottery production from the seventeenth through the early-twentieth century and author of The Beverly Pottery: The Wares of Charles A. Lawrence and other related books

Amanda Lange – Curatorial Department Director and Curator of Historic Interior at Historic Deerfield

Bonnie Campbell Lilienfeld – Assistant Director, Curatorial Affairs at the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian Institution

Tom Kelleher – Historian and Curator of Mechanical Arts at Old Sturbridge Village

Day 2

Abby Battis – Associate Director for Collections, Historic Beverly

Massachusetts potter Rick Hamelin

Joe Bagley – Boston City Archaeologist

Advance registration required here; limited to 100.

Full conference

$100/$80 HB members

1 day (either)

$55/$44 members