Harvey K. Littleton, Harvey Littleton

1922 Born Corning, New York

2013 Died Spruce Pine, North Carolina

EDUCATION

1945 Studied at Brighton School of Art, England

1947 Bachelor of Design, University of Michigan, GI Bill

1951 MFA Ceramics, Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan

PRIMARY WORK EXPERIENCE

—Army Signal Corps

1952-1977 University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin

Harvey Littleton is known for thrown stoneware functional pieces. He chose to throw off the hump allowing him to produce up to 150 pieces in a day.   

He grew up in the glass world of Corning, New York but chose to work with clay because he wanted the small studio environment the media allowed. Littleton studied with Nora Braden, a student of Bernard Leach, at the Brighton School. He studied Industrial Design at the University of Wisconsin, graduated and set up a design shop. After serving in the Army he went on to study with Maija Grotell at Cranbrook. 

In 1962 he left the field of ceramics to work in glass. He is credited with establishing the American studio glass movement when he set up a studio to work with glass in the same small studio format that ceramic studios functioned, in doing so he removed glass from the factory.