Made possible by the Fannie & Morris Sklaw Foundation,
PSN Family Charitable Trust and a project grant from the New Jersey
Historical Commission, a division of the Department of State.
Hot, Hotter, Hottest
300 Years of New Jersey Ceramics
Long-term Installation
2nd Floor, The Ballantine House
The Newark Museum was the first in the nation to celebrate regional industry with its 1915 exhibition The Clay Products of New Jersey. One hundred and one years later, a new, interactive permanent gallery for the Museum’s unparalleled collection commemorates the Garden State’s great history as one of the great pottery and porcelain centers of the Western World.
From pickle jars and pie plates, from artistic porcelains to modern studio pottery, New Jersey has one of the richest ceramic traditions in the United States. Over the course of three centuries, New Jersey potteries employed thousands of people and produced millions of objects out of local clay.
The Museum began collecting locally-made ceramics in 1911, and its holdings have continued to expand ever since, culminating in the donation of the Lenox Archives by Brown-Forman, Inc., in 2006, which are shared with the New Jersey State Museum and Rutgers University Library Special Collections.