Vol. XII. No. 3 
SYRACUSE, NEW YORK 
July' 19 JO 
REMARKABLE convention has 
just been held at University City, 
St. Louis. About 2,500 dele- 
gates of the American Woman's 
League with about as many more 
members who came with them, 
met together with Mr. E. O. Lewis, 
the founder of the League, to or- 
ganize the Founder's chapter. A 
more earnest and enthusiastic 
gathering it has never been our fortune to witness nor one 
more unanimous on every point. One of the most remark- 
able features of this meeting was the general and marked 
interest in the ceramic work being done in the art institute. 
It would seem that a good proportion of the members 
either had been or were intending to become workers in 
ceramics, either overglaze or pottery. There are now 
working in the overglaze department about 300 corre- 
spondence pupils and some twenty or thirty attendance 
pupils. In the pottery department there are about thirty 
correspondence pupils and ten attendance students. The 
correspondence courses are all free to members. The 
attendance classes are pay classes except for the honor 
students who are paid $60.00 a month. There was an in- 
teresting exhibit of student work in all departments — we 
will illustrate these later. 
Burley & Tyrell Co., of Chicago announce on another 
page a competitive exhibition to be held from September 5th 
to 14th. The work to be classified either as naturalistic 
or conventional work, three prizes to be awarded in each 
department: $25.00 for first, $15,00 for second and $10.00 
for third prize. This will be an interesting competition 
and we hope to be able to publish the winning pieces in 
Keramic Studio. 
* 
Have you observed lately the little thread which hangs 
from the end of a Keramic magazine roll or from a tube 
containing color studies? It is placed there that you may 
open the package by simply drawing the thread through 
the wrapper thus saving the magazine or design from de- 
facement. Do not fail to use it. Your magazine will 
open up much smoother. — Keramic Studio Pub. Co. 
* 
There has just come to our table the circular of a new 
device for a dividing and banding machine which 
should become the guardian angel of designers. It is simply 
worked and divides and spaces accurately with very little 
trouble and a great saving of time. Workers in conventional 
design should look into it. The machine is made by 
Mrs. Bauer of Columbus, O. 
* 
We would like to hear from our readers what they 
would prefer next in the way of a competition. Unless we 
hear strongly to the contrary we will plan another "Little 
Things to Make" for publication in the November issue in 
time to have the suggestions used for Christmas. 
DEATH OF ELIZABETH BENNETT MILLS-AN APPRE- 
CIATION 
ON Easter morning of this year, 1910, Elizabeth Ben- 
nett Mills was laid to rest in Pasadena, California. 
Ceramics was the chosen profession of Miss Mills and she 
would doubtless have made a place for herself in the higher 
ranks of the potter's art. Her mind was of that keen, 
penetrating, investigating type which left no stone unturned 
to get at the root of what she was searching for. Of in- 
domitable courage, energy and ambition and of indepen- 
dant means, she had the qualifications to succeed in this 
most elusive and exacting of the arts. Her education in 
the University of Wisconsin, where she specialized in 
science and mathematics, and her graduate work in phi- 
losophy at the University of Chicago, gave her a good 
foundation for special work in Ceramics. She developed 
this under Prof. Binns of the New York State School of 
Ceramics and Prof. Orton of Columbus, Ohio, and was 
considering the feasibility of taking an art course to round 
out her equipment for establishing a pottery of her own. 
These mighty efforts to develop and to give expression to 
one's self, as well as such fixed devotion to an art, can not 
be, are not, lost. Those who came in contact with her 
and those who knew what she had done, will be spurred 
on to greater effort by the force of her example, and thus 
will her spirit and work yet live. Miss Mills was born in 
Madison, Wisconsin, at the home of her grandfather, 
who was one of the founders of that city of the five lakes. 
She leaves a host of friends to mourn her loss. 
Mary G. Sheerer. 
The following open letter from Mrs. Teana McLennan 
will explain to her many friends why her studio has been 
closed for some time. We would like to add our own 
comment that ceramic students going to New York for 
study could not do better than patronize her little restaurant 
which with true courage and a genial spirit she has opened 
to the public. 
Dear Friends and Pupils: 
Do not be distressed that I have stopped painting for a while. I am asked 
every day, and some days I have three or four letters asking the reason. I 
had painted so much, and worked so hard for so many years that both my 
work and I needed a rest. The benefit that I have received will, I am sure, 
show in my work when I take it up again. And I am having the best time 
with my little studio restaurant, where I wait on the table at the luncheon 
hour. The success of it has exceeded the wildest hopes, and I am so interested 
and have such a good time that it makes me sad to think others are mourning 
because I am not painting. Every one of you should be glad and happy to 
know that I had the good sense to stop before my work got in such a state as 
to really be cause for tears. And surely in every profession we have examples 
of that sort before us every day. When I again take up my work you will all 
see what the rest and change have accomplished. I am sure of great things 
myself. And do not think I am downhearted because I gave up my work, but 
come in some day to lunch or dinner and see that I have made many devoted 
friends because I learned to cook. Every one is so good and kind and help- 
ful, almost as much so as in my painting classes, and anyone who has ever 
been in one of my big classes and seen how good and patient the pupils have 
been with each other and with me, will see how that same thing is carried out 
in my dining room, 297 Fifth Ave. T^ana McLexxax. 
