ELWYN B. ROBINSON DEPARTMENT OF SPECIAL COLLECTIONS
CHESTER FRITZ LIBRARY
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH DAKOTA
GRAND FORKS, NORTH DAKOTA 58202

MARGARET KELLY CABLE PAPERS

COLLECTION: OGL#657

DATES: 1921-1945

SIZE: Two Folders

INTRODUCTION

ACQUISITION: The Margaret Kelly Cable Papers were originally part of the University of North Dakota Biographical file. (Accession #81-810)

ACCESS: Available for inspection under the rules and regulations of the Department of Special Collections.

Related Materials:University of North Dakota Pottery: The Cable Years by Margaret Libby Barr, Donald Miller and Richard Barr, 1977

Collector's Encyclopedia of the Dakota Potteries by Darlene Hurst Dommel, 1996

University of North Dakota Pottery: The Cable Years by Donald Miller, 1999

University of North Dakota Ceramics Department Records: UA 10

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

Margaret Kelly Cable was born (March 1, 1884) and raised in Minnesota. After realizing that she would be unable to attend college for economic reasons, she decided to apprentice at the Guild of Handicrafts in Minneapolis, Minnesota. After two years of studying and two years of teaching she accepted a position in the Ceramics Department at University of North Dakota in 1910 to teach pottery. She continued to educate herself in pottery by attending several sessions of summer schools and visiting different potters around the nation. She studied under Fredrich H. Rhead, a renowned English potter, in 1911 and Charles F. Binns, Director of the State School of Ceramics at Alfred University in New York, in 1918. She lectured and demonstrated in schools around the state and nation. She presented at the 1915 Panama Pacific Exposition. In that same year, she was accepted into the American Ceramic Society. She wrote two articles that appeared in that society's journal, "Development of Ceramic Work at the University of North Dakota" and "pots and Pines, a Decorative Problem for the Artist Potter." In 1921 she became an assistant professor at the University of North Dakota. She presented at the 1927 Women's World Fair in Chicago and was named North Dakota's Outstanding Woman. She later went to the Century of Progress Exposition in 1933 in Chicago. Her exhibit was described as "the outstanding exhibition of United States pottery." A year later, 1934, she became an associate professor at the University of North Dakota. In 1937 she served for six months as a Traveling Educational Expert in Ceramics for the United States Indian Field Service. She was mostly at Pine Ridge in Western South Dakota instructing Native Americans the techniques of modern pottery. After 39 years of teaching at the University of North Dakota, Margaret retired in 1949 and moved to California with her sister, Mrs. Flora Huckfield. In 1951 the American Ceramic Society awarded her with the Charles F. Binns Medal for excellence in art. She died at the age of 76 in California on Halloween, 1960.

SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE

The collection includes a booklet about making pottery from North Dakota clay, Post-War Ceramic Opportunities in North Dakota (an article about the benefits of North Dakota pottery), assorted newspaper clippings, and The Development of Ceramic Work at the University of North Dakota by Margaret Kelly Cable.

BOX AND FOLDER INVENTORY

Box 1
Folder

1. Booklets and reports
2. Newspaper clippings

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