Margaret Overbeck | Hannah Overbeck | Elizabeth Overbeck | Mary Francis Overbeck

Overbeck, Margaret (1863-1911)

As the guiding spirit for the Overbeck Studios, Margaret studied at the Cincinnati Art Academy under J. H. Sharp, L. H. Meakin, Lewis Cass Lutz (Cambridge City native), Vincent Nowattny, and Otto W. Beck as well as from Arthur Wesley Dow and Marshall Fry of Columbia Univeristy. She would teach at the Sayre Institute in Lexington, Kentucky and at the Megguier Seminary in Boonville, Missouri. She would be the one to provide early instruction to her sisters before they attended art schools. From 1899 to 1911, Margaret taught drawing, watercolor and china painting at DePauw University, Greencastle Indiana. In August of 1907, she suffered severe head injuries from an automobile accident in Chicago. During that period, while home recovering, she organized and taught classes in Richmond. Later she worked as a decorator at Zanesville Art Pottery in 1910 and returned to Cambridge City after the pottery factory burned.

 

From the start, Margaret’s goal for the studio was to concentrate on originality and quality as opposed to quantity. The studio would be the family home. Located at 520 East Church Street, the two-story home is still standing and is faithfully cared for by Jerry and Phyllis Mattheis. The sisters did not have state of the art equipment, but rather simple and primitive materials including a small motor driven potters wheel. The sisters would do all of the work from design to firing. They adhered to the ideals of the American Arts and Crafts Movement. Objects must be at once simple, beautiful, functional and hand wrought.

 

Unfortunately, Margaret would never see the pottery studio develop. She died in August 1911, believed as a result of her injuries from the automobile accident in 1907. [Sources]

Overbeck, Hannah (1870-1931)

Hannah worked with her sister Ida in the photography studio in Cambridge City before she attended the Indiana State Normal School (Indiana State University) at Terre Haute, Indiana. After college, she was a public school teacher at Clinton, Indiana before ill health forced her to return home in 1903. Hannah is mostly recognized for her designs in pencil and watercolor of plants, trees and insects. She contributed numerous designs to Keramic Studio, 1904-1916.

 

The sister’s paintings and pottery won awards at expositions in Paris, France; Baltimore, Maryland; San Francisco, California; and Chicago, Illinois. Hannah and her sisters exhibited in the Arts and Crafts Biennials at the Richmond Art Museum. [Sources]

 

Overbeck, Elizabeth (1875-1936)

Elizabeth studied under the famed ceramists, Charles Bins at the New York State School of Claymaking and Ceramics, New York. She handled the technical aspects of the pottery, including clay and glaze development and building the wares on the wheel. It was her expertise that brought national attention to her work.

 

In 1931, William Lowe Bryan, Indiana University President, asked Elizabeth to establish a school of ceramics, which she declined. She was instrumental in the execution of two twin vases and a set of five tiles for the Public Works Administration in 1934. The twin vases are considered some of the finest work created by the Overbeck’s and were displayed nationally and in Paris, France.

 

Eight months before her death, she was awarded the highest honor as ceramists, being named a Fellow in the American Ceramic Society in 1936. [Sources]

 

Overbeck, Mary Francis (1878-1955)

Mary Francis studied at the Cincinnati Art Academy, Summer Art School, directed by Arthur Dow, Ipswich, Massachusetts, circa 1909. She taught school in Boulder, Colorado, Centerville and Cambridge City, Indiana before joining her sisters in the home studio. Mary Francis specialized in decoration, finishing and glazing for the Overbeck Pottery Studio.

 

Mary Francis in particular showed a love for children in her work more than any of the other sisters. For the children of Cambridge City, she made and donated a large galleon in full sail manned with pirate figurines to the Cambridge City Public Library. She painted large oil paintings of children including Speed Demons, School Children and The Road to Nowhere on display at the Richmond Art Museum. In addition she painted a fond portrayal of Virginia and Charles Overbeck playing in a sandbox on display in the Overbeck Museum in Cambridge City. Her creations of bugs, spiders, dragons and giraffes all appealed to children and adults alike.

It is believed that she created thousands of pieces of pottery with her three sisters. Pins and figurines were the main output in her later years. She also got great enjoyment from painting her favorite subject, birds. She continued to hand-mold, paint and glaze small pieces until her death in 1955. [Sources]

Preferred Media: Pottery, Painting, Drawing

Additional Information & Images:

Images

• Vase - Richmond Art Museum

• Vase

• Overbeck Pottery Trophy Cup

• The Overbeck Home

Articles

• The "Humor of the Kiln" and One Family’s Story of Creating Art Out of the Backyard

• Next of Kiln: The Overbeck Sisters - as featured on the Antiques Roadshow

Museum Links

• Museum of Overbeck Art Pottery - by WayNet.org

• Overbeck Pottery Museum - by Cambridge City Public Library

Miscellaneous

• Play: The Misses Overbeck

• Video: The Overbeck Sisters: A Legacy of Spirit

• Book: The Chronicle of the Overbeck Pottery by Kathleen R. Postle

Sources:

Margaret Overbeck

• Burnet, Mary Q. Art and Artists of Indiana. New York; The Century Co., 1921.

• Mattheis, Phyllis. Paper on Overbeck Sisters-Kathleen Postle Archive, Richmond Art Museum

• Newton, Judith Vale and Carol Weiss, Skirting the Issue: Stories of Indiana’s Historical Women Artists. Indianapolis, Indiana: Indiana Historical Society Press. 2004.

• Postle, Kathleen R. The Chronicle of the Overbeck Pottery. Indianapolis; Indiana Historical Society, 1978.

Hannah Overbeck

• Burnet, Mary Q. Art and Artists of Indiana. New York; The Century Co., 1921.

• Mattheis, Phyllis. Paper on Overbeck Sisters-Kathleen Postle Archive, Richmond Art Museum

• Newton, Judith Vale and Carol Weiss, Skirting the Issue: Stories of Indiana’s Historical Women Artists. Indianapolis, Indiana: Indiana Historical Society Press. 2004.

• Postle, Kathleen R. The Chronicle of the Overbeck Pottery. Indianapolis; Indiana Historical Society, 1978.

Elizabeth Overbeck

• Burnet, Mary Q. Art and Artists of Indiana. New York; The Century Co., 1921.

• Mattheis, Phyllis. Paper on Overbeck Sisters-Kathleen Postle Archive, Richmond Art Museum

• Newton, Judith Vale and Carol Weiss, Skirting the Issue: Stories of Indiana’s Historical Women Artists. Indianapolis, Indiana: Indiana Historical Society Press. 2004.

• Postle, Kathleen R. The Chronicle of the Overbeck Pottery. Indianapolis; Indiana Historical Society, 1978.

Mary Francis Overbeck

• Burnet, Mary Q. Art and Artists of Indiana. New York; The Century Co., 1921.

• Kiss, Carl. The Use of Symbolism in Arts and Crafts Pottery: Discovering a Hidden Overbeck Treasure, 1993.

• Mattheis, Phyllis. Paper on Overbeck Sisters-Kathleen Postle Archive, Richmond Art Museum

• Palladium-Item and Sun-Telegram, May 30, 1948. Last of Famous Overbeck Sisters Carries on Family’s Art Tradition.

• Newton, Judith Vale and Carol Weiss, Skirting the Issue: Stories of Indiana’s Historical Women Artists. Indianapolis, Indiana: Indiana Historical Society Press. 2004.

• Postle, Kathleen R. The Chronicle of the Overbeck Pottery. Indianapolis; Indiana Historical Society, 1978.