Hadley Pottery facts for kids

Hadley Pottery is an American-based pottery and stoneware company started by Mary Alice Hale Hadley and her husband George E. Hadley in 1945 and is located on Story Avenue in the Butchertown neighborhood of Louisville, Kentucky.

History

Hadley Pottery had its inception in 1939, when Mary Alice Hadley applied her artistic talents to the making of a custom set of dishes for a cruiser she and her husband George Hadley had on the Ohio River. She created her own design and painted it on unfired blanks that she fired at the Louisville Pottery Co. When friends saw the design of her dishes, they were interested in purchasing dishes of their own, so Hadley created a few more at the Louisville Pottery Co. With more interest and demand, the Hadleys finally purchased what became the Hadley Pottery building at 1570 Story Ave. in Louisville in October 1944 as a birthday present for Mrs. Hadley. Mrs. Hadley painted all of the murals on the walls of the building and the Hadley Pottery opened for business in 1945.

Awards

Hadley Pottery was exhibited by the American Craftsmen's Educational Council in 1947, and at the Ceramic National Exhibit at the Syracuse Museum of Fine Arts. In 1952, Mary Alice Hadley received an award from the Museum of Modern Art's Good Design program Her winning "Brown Dot," or "Hot Brown Fleck," design was exhibited in New York and Chicago.

Collections of Hadley pottery reside at the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute, Indiana and at the Speed Art Museum in Louisville, Kentucky.

Images for kids

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  Mary Alice Hadley Ceramics at the Speed Art Museum

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  Mary Alice Hadley Ceramics at the Speed Art Museum