Collections by Name | Collections by Region

Grand Ledge Folk Pottery Collection

Grand Ledge, Michigan is a small town located along the Grand River west of Michigan's capital city of Lansing. From the time of earliest human settlement until the mid-1980s, rich local deposits of clay supported the domestic and commercial production of utilitarian and decorative pottery for a variety of uses. Several potteries operating in the twentieth century were known for their production of sewer tiles, drain pipes, and chimney flue liners which, while used extensively in the region were also marketed widely across the United States. The twentieth-century potteries also provided the sites where both pottery workers and local citizens used the clay, kiln, and equipment to create (sometimes surreptitiously without the pottery owner's knowledge) an extensive range of artistic products intended for use in their own homes or as gifts to family and friends.

The collection of materials at the MSU Museum grew out of a series of ethnographic and archival projects conducted in the late 1970s and early 1980s by the museum in partnership with the Grand Ledge Historical Society and the Grand Ledge Library. The projects were funded by grants from the Michigan Humanities Council, the Grand Ledge Historical Society, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Stroh Foundation, and an All-University Research Grant from MSU.

The collection consists of historical and contemporary photographs of the potteries and the workers, audio-taped interviews with workers, business equipment and records, and field notes. Also included are examples of the creative art produced by workers: lion doorstops, table lamp bases, ashtrays, and garden ornaments.

Donors and Fieldworkers

Grand Ledge Historical Society, Dr. Marsha MacDowell, Dr. C. Kurt Dewhurst Dr. C. Kurt Dewhurst, Dr. Marsha MacDowell

Exhibitions

"Michigan Folk Art: Its Beginnings to 1941," Kresge Art Gallery, Michigan State University, East Lansing, August 29 - October 10, 1976

"Cast in Clay: The Folk Pottery of Grand Ledge, Michigan," East Lansing, Michigan: Michigan State University Museum in collaboration with the Grand Ledge Historical Society, 1980; Winchester Center Gallery, Las Vegas, Nevada, January - April, 1993; and Festival of Michigan Folklife, East Lansing, Michigan, August, 1995.

Publications

C. Kurt Dewhurst and Marsha MacDowell. Cast in Clay: The Folk Pottery of Grand Ledge, Michigan. East Lansing, Michigan: Michigan State University Museum in collaboration with the Grand Ledge Historical Society, 1980.

C. Kurt Dewhurst. The Folk Pottery of Grand Ledge: Traditions at Work. Ann Arbor, Michigan: UMI Research Press, 1986. C. Kurt Dewhurst and Marsha MacDowell. "The Pottery and the People: A Community Experience," pp. 245-262 in C. Kurt Dewhurst and Yvonne Lockwood, editors, Michigan Folklife Reader. East Lansing, Michigan: Michigan State University Press, 1987.

C. Kurt Dewhurst and Marsha MacDowell. Michigan Folk Art: Its Beginnings to 1941. East Lansing, Michigan: Michigan State University Museum, 1976.

Ceramic bookends, Grand Ledge, Michigan, late 19th - early 20th century

Ceramic lamp stand, Ray Poole, Grand Ledge, Michigan, 1930