(1094C) AC NMAH 213 Container List BENNETT POTTERY COLLECTION, 1844-1981 BOX FOLDER CONTENTS Series 1: BIOGRAPHICAL 1 1 Bennett Family History Autobiography of Edwin Bennett Monument to a Queen (Victoria Memorial Lot of the St. George's Society of Baltimore) 2 Metsch, Christian & C. R. Boyce. Memories. East Liverpool, Ohio: First Methodist Episcopal Church, c. 1906. (reference to p. 101, Edwin Bennett) 3 Citizenship papers, personal & family records and death announcements Series 2: CORRESPONDENCE, 1914-1981 (Letters to Mr. & Mrs. Edwin Bennett Filbert) 1 1 Baltimore Museum of Art 1941 Bennett, Chester 1963-1974 2 Bennett, James 1967 (including a copy of Andrew Carnegie letter, March 11, 1858), & response from Edwin Bennett Filbert, 1967 3 Maryland Historical Society, 1954-1974 4 Miscellaneous, 1973 5 Pennsylvania Museum, 1914-1941 Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1941
6 Smithsonian Institution 1958-1981 7 Winterthur (Henry Frances DuPont) Museum, 1958-1966 Series 3: BENNETT POTTERY COMPANY 2 1 Resolution to erect factory 1847 Amount of stock 1851-1854 Names of customers 1853 Cancelled checks - Patent for Fruit Jar 1869 "Right" to use & make Hicks cement 1879 Columbia Exposition Award 1893 Floor plan (of kiln) - Exhibit cards 1875, 1890-1900 2 Edwin Huston Bennett, (son of Edwin Bennett) stock shares, "memorandums," & photographs Names of some of the Men & Women who worked at Edwin Bennett Pottery Co. 1908-1927 3 Gillinder & Bennett 1867 - (?) (copy of) lease - Dec. 1867 Letter to Martha Gillinder - July 1868 Newspaper clippings Correspondence - Emma Masland to Mrs. Edwin Bennett Filbert 2 Stereo cards of factory 4 Haynes, Bennett Co., 1890-1893 newspaper clipping 5 Factory Fire - letter annoucing fire & planned re-building, Feb. 3, 1910, 6 Correspondence to: "Glass & Lamps" (trade journal) Aug. 26, 1921 Correspondence from: R. T. Vanderbilt Co. re: -June 1925 American Clays - (with article reprinted from Journal of American Ceramic Society 2 7 & 8 Notes by Mrs. Edwin Bennett Filbert 10 Notes by Mrs. Edwin Bennett Filbert
Series 4: CATALOGUES, ADVERTISEMENTS, STATIONARY, ETC. 3 1 Price lists, catalogues and advertisements: Bennett Pottery Co. Chesapeake Pottery Co. Haynes, Bennett & Co. 2 Illustrations of Artistic Wares, mfg. by Edwin Bennett, Balt., MD. 3 Stationary, steel engraving & post cards of factory; plate for engraving & card 4 Newspaper, magazine articles Series 5: PHOTOGRAPHS 5 Bennett Pottery wares 6 Edwin Bennett, Edwin Huston Bennett (son), house, employees & factory 4 2 rolled-up panoramic photographs Baltimore fire of 1904. Series 6: NOTEBOOKS OF FORMULAE AND RECEIPTS 5 1 Daybook, 1853 and "Memorandum of trials of Glazes & Bodies," 1853-1862. Glaze formulas, 1862 Formulas, expenses & orders 1864 Formulas, 1866-1868 Formulas - (loose pages) Clays, 1866 Book of Experiments Edwin Bennett, Baltimore, 1876 2 (Photo-copies of above) 6 3 Formulas 1872-1906 4 Formulas 1896-1935
Series 7: PRINTED MATERIAL Sub-Series A: Books re: Pottery and Glass 7 1 Matthew Brown, his Book Potter, Durham, England (no date) John Shirley, Receipts for Potting, Enamelling, Glass Staining & Painting - Phila. 1845 2 Wm. Evans, Art and History of the Potting Business, 1846 John Taylor, The Complete Practical Potter, 1847 Apsley Pellett, Curiosities of Glass Making, 1848 May 1871 3 Philip Pointon's Receipt Book for the Manufacture of Pottery Ware, Aug. 1869 to 4 W. R. Creyke, Book of Receipts --- for Enamel, Underglaze & Majolica, 1884 Untitled - Table of chemical elements, potencies, receipts, etc. Arthur S. Watts - (no date) Note on cobalt stain in White Ware Bodies Sub-Series B: Periodicals and Other Materials 8 1 Maryland Historical Societies 2 Bulletin of the Pennsylvania Museum, April 1914 1894 3 Baltimore & Its Industrial Development 1882, and Baltimore Souvenir Map, 4 United States Potters Association, Dec. 8, 1908, Dec. 1, 1903 and Wage Scale and Size List Agreement, May 1931 5 Pottery and Glassware Reporter, Oct. 8, 1891 Crockery and Glass Journal, Jan. 27, 1898 The China, Glass & Pottery Review, April 1898 (2 copies) Glass and Pottery World, June 20, 1905 6 China, Glass & Lamps, Sept. 5, 1921 (2 copies) Ceramic Industry, Oct. 1935 Minerals Yearbook (Clays, chapter reprint), 1941 7 Miscellaneous
8a (Folio Folder)
Series 8: LEDGERS OF THE SEVERN CLAY CO. (SUBSIDIARY OF BENNETT POTTERY CO.) 9 Cash Book #1 12/18/33-05/09/40 " #2 05/08/40-10/30/43 " #3 11/01/43-12/30/47 10 Sales Book #1 Feb. 1934 to 23 Apr. 1940 " #21 Apr. 1940 to 30 Mar. 1943 " #31 Apr. 1943 to 31 Mar. 1943 " #41 Apr. 1947 to 29 June 1951
(1094C) AC NMAH 213 BENNETT POTTERY COLLECTION, 1844-1881 (4 cubic feet; 5 DB; 5 F/O, 1 folder) Biography Edwin Bennett, 1818-1908, was the founder of the Edwin Bennett Pottery Company, Baltimore, Maryland, which operated between 1846 and 1936 He was born in Newhall, Derbyshire, England, where he worked as a potter before coming to the United States in 1841 to join his brother, James Bennett, also a potter, in East Liverpool, Ohio. In order to have access to the railroads, which at that time did not extend beyond the Alleghany Mountains, he decided to move east, first to Pittsburgh and then to Baltimore, Maryland where he built a factory in 1846. Among the first wares produced were those for utilitarian purposes, such as pitchers, mugs, plates, spittoons, etc. These were primarily yellow wares, referred to by Bennett as "caneware". Mention is also made, and examples are extant, of Rockingham & ironstone wares. One popular model was a "Rebekah at the Well" teapot which was produced in 1851. Bennett continued to experiment with clay bodies and glazes for many years as his notebooks indicate. The company's general line of merchandise expanded to include decorated porcelain tableware, parlor and banquet lamps, clock cases and other items. Bennett also hired skilled potters who produced artistic wares which were shown at various state exhibitions. The company received awards from the Maryland Institute in 1854 and 1856, and later at the Philadelphia Centennial of 1876 and the Columbia Exposition of 1893. Examples of Bennett pottery are in the collections of the Maryland Historical Society, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of New York, and the Smithsonian Institution. Two fires, one in 1864 and the other in 1906, destroyed many of the company's records, but advertisements and other materials that were salvaged, give evidence of the growth of the company. Along with its subsidiaries, it became one of the largest suppliers in the United States of hotel kitchen and tableware, chemical containers, public restroom fixtures and roofing tiles.
Edwin Bennett was a charter member of the United States Potters Association having aided in its formation in 1875. In 1903 he was honored by the association as America's oldest living potter. His son, Edwin Huston Bennett, became president of the company in 1890 but Bennett remained active in it until his death in 1908. Scope and Content This collection consists of material from 1844 to 1981. It includes early Bennett family histories, an autobiography by Edwin Bennett, correspondence from 1914 to 1981, Bennett Pottery Company records, photographs, notebooks of clay and glaze formulas, printed books, newsclippings and periodicals related to pottery, and a set of ledgers from 1933 to 1951.