Abstract
1884-1960; UND Ceramics Department
Administrative/Biographical History
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.
