Porcelain, Pottery, and Politics

Porcelain, Pottery, and Politics

Wednesday Classes | Available

3025 Bull Street Savannah, GA 31405 United States
Room 134
6/11/2025-6/25/2025
3:00 PM-4:00 PM on Wed
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$60.00
Member Discount Available

Porcelain, Pottery, and Politics

Wednesday Classes | Available

Porcelain, Pottery, and Politics

 3:00-4:00 pm | Wednesdays, June 11, 18, and 25 | $30/$60

(Individual session registration is available in the A la Carte section, or by using the REGISTER buttons below.)

First Ladies and Their China 
REGISTER
Ellen Denker | Wednesday, June 11
This lecture is delivered via Zoom from the speaker’s home in North Carolina.
The prerogative of each First Lady to select a china pattern for the White House reaches beyond personal taste to serve important diplomatic functions for the President and the nation.  This lecture introduces several First Ladies and explores their tableware choices.

Fiesta ware, International Politics, and the Rise of Mexican Chic  
REGISTER
Michael Van Wagenen | Wednesday, June 18
Brightly colored dinnerware became popular during the 1930s to the 1950s, revealing the nuances of international politics stretching from the Depression to World War II and throughout the Cold War.
 

The Faces of Edgefield Pottery  
REGISTER

Tania Sammons | Wednesday, June 25

Edgefield, South Carolina pottery included face vessels and other utilitarian containers, providing material links to unknown aspects of the life and work of enslaved Africans and their descendants.

  • This program will be recorded and subsequently released digitally by email.

    Ellen Denker is a curator and author who has worked at Winterthur Museum and the Home of Frankin D. Roosevelt.  She has written about American china, porcelain, and pottery for scores of publications.

     

    Tania Sammons is a public historian and writer who has served in curatorial roles at the Andrew Low House and Telfair Museums, where she curated the exhibition Beyond Utility: Pottery Created by Enslaved Hands.  She currently serves as curator at the Ships of the Sea Maritime Museum.

     

    Michael Van Wagenen is a professor of history at Georgia Southern University.  He established the University’s program in public history and is an expert on U.S.-Mexico relations, the U.S.-Mexican War, and war in American memory.