Books, archives & research resources.

A broad history of pottery and porcelain, from early traditions to the manufacturers and artistic work known in the nineteenth century. The original volume includes 464 illustrations and considers both the making of ceramics and their place in art and everyday life.

Why use it: A useful comparison text: place the Crown’s pottery industry beside the wider ceramic world, and compare its terminology and historical interpretations with other period writers.

An approachable introduction to clays and tools, hand building, wheel work, decoration, glazes, plaster molds, tiles and kilns. White’s illustrations accompany the instructions, and the closing chapters introduce pottery traditions and American work of her time.

Why use it: A clear way to picture the basic processes behind pottery terms encountered in local histories. Start here for a shorter introduction to the craft as it was taught in 1904.

A studio and workshop guide covering clay preparation, molds, hand building, throwing, casting, glazes, decoration and firing. This revised edition includes additions on children’s clay work and alkaline glazes, with 26 plates and 20 text illustrations.

Why use it: Compare the artist-potter’s approach with industrial production in the Crown. It is a fuller workshop companion to White’s introduction.

Edition note: the linked text is the revised 1922 edition, rather than the original 1910 text.

A substantial local archive of articles and historical material about East Liverpool’s potteries, people, streets, schools, neighborhoods and community life. Its table of contents is an important entrance to the collection.

Why use it: Begin with a person, company, street or subject, then follow related entries. Record the article title and its own page address when citing a particular item.

A digital selection drawn from the East Liverpool Historical Society’s photograph archive and the Cleveland Press Archives. Subjects include pottery, streets, river views, the Newell Bridge and Rock Springs Park.

Why use it: Look for visual evidence to compare with maps, directories and written accounts. Open the individual image record for its description and source information.

The museum’s guide describes company and people files, catalogs, city directories, books and historic newspapers, including preserved newspaper microfilm.

Why use it: Identify which institution holds the evidence you need before planning a research visit or request. This page describes holdings; it does not provide a complete digitized archive.

A starting point for local obituary and family research, with information about the library’s lookup service, genealogy databases, digitized Review newspapers and Ohio Sanborn maps.

Why use it: Follow the library’s access instructions for each database. For a staff lookup, give a specific name, date range and question.

A guide to correspondence, minutes, agreements, membership records and other materials documenting the council and local unions. The collection includes pottery-union correspondence and material on a ceramic hobby-room project.

Why use it: Useful for researching workers and organized labor alongside company histories. Use the folder list to prepare a focused request.

The library says off-site materials can require up to three weeks for retrieval. Its current notice also limits digital collections to campus network users during a platform migration; contact Special Collections for assistance.

Detailed town and city maps recording buildings, construction materials, uses and industrial sites. The collection’s search tools and guides help locate available editions and interpret the sheets.

Why use it: Search the community and map date, then compare editions to follow a site over time. Check the individual record for online sheets; a catalog listing does not always mean every sheet is digitized.

Penn State’s guide leads to scanned Pennsylvania maps in the Digital Map Drawer, catalog records and a map-scan request service. A separate Sanborn guide points to its fire-insurance map collections.

Why use it: A starting point for the Pennsylvania side of the Crown. Search a community, county and date; use the Sanborn guide when investigating individual buildings.

An archaeological and documentary study of an early East Liverpool pottery, bringing together excavation evidence, factory history, kiln remains, recovered wares and historical images.

Why use it: A particularly useful comparison for the older ceramics books above: see how physical evidence and later research can test and extend earlier accounts. Read the article with its illustrations and notes on the publisher’s site.

A scholarly online edition with journal entries searchable by author and date, plus indexes, introductory material, images and maps.

Why use it: For Lewis’s Ohio River journey, start with the late-August and early-September 1803 entries. Read the day’s text and editorial notes before comparing it with historical river charts and local geography.