Mary Given Sheerer

Mary Given Sheerer (1865-1954) was an American ceramicist, designer, and art educator, best known for her affiliation with the Newcomb Pottery project at H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College, now part of Tulane University. Sheerer was born in Covington, Kentucky in 1865. She studied art in Massachusetts and at the Art Students League of New York, and graduated from the Art Academy of Cincinnati. While living in Covington in the early 1890s, she worked at Rookwood Pottery Company. In 1894, Newcomb art faculty founders William Woodward and Ellsworth Woodward made Sheerer their first faculty hire. She became a full professor in 1903. Her works were displayed at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in 1904, and the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in 1915. She was noted for designing glazes and pottery decoration. Sheerer was responsible for setting standards and guiding Newcomb Pottery's day-to-day production. She gave technical advice to Mississippi ceramicist Peter Anderson. Sheerer retired from the Newcomb faculty in 1931. She died in December 1954 in Cincinnati and is buried at Highland Cemetery, Fort Mitchell, Kentucky.