Susan Stuart Frackelton, Oval shaped vase, circa 1894-1906

Susan Stuart Goodrich Frackelton (1848–1932) was an American painter, specializing in painting

ceramic A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain ...

s. She was a leader in the Arts and Crafts movement in the United States and author of ''Tried by Fire'',Susan S. Frackelton
''Tried By Fire - A Work on China-Painting''.
New York: D. Appleton, 1886. the "most popular handbook for decorators of chinaware", having reached a national audience.

Personal life

Susan Stuart Goodrich was born on June 5, 1848 in

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

to her parents of New England birth, Edwin H. Goodrich and Mary S. Robinson Goodrich. She attended private schools in Milwaukee and

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

.
Men and Women of America: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporaries
'. New York City: L.R. Hamersly; 1910. p. 651. She married Richard Frackelton on July 19, 1869. He was born in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

and immigrated to the United States about 1857. They lived in Milwaukee, where they raised a daughter and three sons. Her husband ran an import business that failed. The success of Susan Frackelton's businesses, though, helped secure the financial future of their family.''Susan Frackelton: Punch Bowl''.
Milwaukee County Historical Society. Retrieved May 6, 2014. Frackelton sued for divorce from her husband due to his inability to support the family and cruel and inhuman treatment, including engaging in "one series of cursing and swearing at the

new woman The New Woman was a feminist ideal that emerged in the late 19th century and had a profound influence well into the 20th century. In 1894, Irish writer Sarah Grand (1854–1943) used the term "new woman" in an influential article, to refer to ...

." By 1899 there were two adult sons, one had died by then, and an eleven-year-old daughter. Richard Frackelton died in 1907. In 1920 Frackelton lived in Chicago, Illinois and went to Haiti for a three-month holiday.Susan Stuart Frackelton. Passport issued December 26, 1919. Passport Applications, January 2, 1906–March 31, 1925. NARA Microfilm Publication M1490, 2740 rolls. General Records of the Department of State, Record Group 59. National Archives, Washington, D.C. She was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Chicago Woman's Club. She died on April 14, 1932 at her home in

Kenilworth, Illinois Kenilworth is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States, north of downtown Chicago. As of the 2020 census it had a population of 2,514. It is the newest of the nine suburban North Shore communities bordering Lake Michigan, and is one o ...

and was buried two days later in the

Forest Home Cemetery Forest Home Cemetery is a historic rural cemetery located in the Lincoln Village neighborhood of Milwaukee, Wisconsin and is the final resting place of many of the city's famed beer barons, politicians and social elite. Both the cemetery and ...

in Milwaukee.''Susan Stuart Frackelton, 1848 to 1932''
Forest Home Cemetery, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Retrieved May 6, 2015.

Career

Frackelton studied landscape painting in Milwaukee under Henry Vianden. She made baskets, lace, and jewelry. She worked with leather, carved wood, wove and painted cloth and worked with metal before focusing on ceramics in 1876. She also lectured to a wide range of audiences. In 1883 she founded the Frackelton China and Decorating Works, where she successfully ran a

china painting China painting, or porcelain painting, is the decoration of glazed porcelain objects such as plates, bowls, vases or statues. The body of the object may be hard-paste porcelain, developed in China in the 7th or 8th century, or soft-paste porce ...

enterprise and provided painting instruction in downtown Milwaukee. She patented Frackelton's Dry Colors in 1894.Jules Heller; Nancy G. Heller.
North American Women Artists of the Twentieth Century: A Biographical Dictionary
'. Routledge; 19 December 2013. . pp. 191–192.''Susan Frackelton Collection.''
Milwaukee County Historical Society. Retrieved May 6, 2014. Frackelton designed and patented a home kiln machine. She created a particular style of

art pottery Art pottery is a term for pottery with artistic aspirations, made in relatively small quantities, mostly between about 1870 and 1930. Typically, sets of the usual tableware items are excluded from the term; instead the objects produced are mostly ...

called the Frackelton "Blue and Grey" which is blue painted ware with a grey glaze. Her "Makers Mark" was a "SF" painted on the underside of each produced item. File:Susan Stuart Frackelton, pitcher, 1901.jpg, Susan Stuart Frackelton, pitcher, 1901,

Milwaukee County Historical Society The Milwaukee County Historical Society, also known as MCHS, is a local historical society in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin. Founded in 1935, the organization was formed to preserve, collect, recognize, and make available materials related to Milwau ...

File:Susan Stuart Frackelton, loving cup, 1894-1906.jpg, Susan Stuart Frackelton, loving cup, 1894-1906,

File:Susan Stuart Frackelton, stein, 1894-1906.jpg, Susan Stuart Frackelton, stein, 1894-1906,

Frackelton was successful as a 19th-century woman artist, including having been the creator of the Blue and Grey pottery, painter of china and maker of book illuminations: In 1892 she founded the National League of Mineral Painters, which included members Adelaïde Alsop Robineau and

Mary Chase Perry Mary Chase Perry Stratton (March 15, 1867 – April 15, 1961) was an American ceramic artist. She was a co-founder, along with Horace James Caulkins, of Pewabic Pottery, a form of ceramic art used to make architectural tiles. Biography Stra ...

. Frackelton was president of a local association of professional artists, that merged into the ''Milwaukee Art Institute'', and at last into the

Milwaukee Art Museum The Milwaukee Art Museum (MAM) is an art museum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Its collection contains nearly 25,000 works of art. Location and Visit Located on the lakefront of Lake Michigan, the Milwaukee Art Museum is one of the largest art museu ...

. She was also president of the ''Wisconsin School of Design''.''2005 Wisconsin Visual Art Lifetime Achievement Awards : Susan Frackelton''
Wisconsin Visual Arts. Wisconsin Painters & Sculptors Inc. Retrieved May 6, 2014. At the 1893 World’s Fair she exhibited her salt-glazed ware and won nine awards for sets of her works. She won other medals at exhibitions in Europe and the United States in the 1880s and 1890s.

Margherita of Savoy Margherita of Savoy (''Margherita Maria Teresa Giovanna''; 20 November 1851 – 4 January 1926) was Queen of Italy by marriage to Umberto I. Life Early life Margherita was born to Prince Ferdinand of Savoy, Duke of Genoa and Princess Elisabe ...

, the

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

queen Queen or QUEEN may refer to: Monarchy * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom ** List of queens regnant * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...

congratulated her via letter to her good works and arranged for Frackelton to present her works to the court.Frances Elizabeth Willard; Mary Ashton Rice Livermore.
A Woman of the Century: Fourteen Hundred-seventy Biographical Sketches Accompanied by Portraits of Leading American Women in All Walks of Life
'. Moulton; 1893. p. 298. In 1899 she jointly made pottery with ceramic artist George E. Ohr.Richard D. Mohr.
Pottery, Politics, Art: George Ohr and the Brothers Kirkpatrick
'. University of Illinois Press; 2003. . p. 145. At the 1900 Paris Exposition Universelle she exhibited her

delftware Delftware or Delft pottery, also known as Delft Blue ( nl, Delfts blauw) or as delf, is a general term now used for Dutch tin-glazed earthenware, a form of faience. Most of it is blue and white pottery, and the city of Delft in the Netherlands ...

s. Her works are among the

Wisconsin Historical Society The Wisconsin Historical Society (officially the State Historical Society of Wisconsin) is simultaneously a state agency and a private membership organization whose purpose is to maintain, promote and spread knowledge relating to the history of N ...

Milwaukee Public Museum The Milwaukee Public Museum (MPM) is a natural and human history museum in downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The museum was chartered in 1882 and opened to the public in 1884; it is a not-for-profit organization operated by the Milwaukee Public Mus ...

and Sinsinawa Mound. In 2005 she posthumously was awarded the Wisconsin Visual Art Lifetime Achievement Award "due to her ground-breaking work with ceramics, china painting and the art pottery movement of the late 19th century."

References

External links

Susan S. Frackelton (1848-1932)
Pottery of Frackelton
Susan S.Frackleton Collection at the MCHS
{{DEFAULTSORT:Frackelton, Susan Stuart American women painters Porcelain painters Artists from Milwaukee 1848 births 1932 deaths Painters from Wisconsin 19th-century American painters 20th-century American painters 20th-century American women artists 19th-century American women artists People from Kenilworth, Illinois

Personal life

Career

References

Further reading

External links