Paul R. Stewart Museum at Waynesburg University
Description
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The stoneware pottery industry emerged in Greensboro-New Geneva due to the presence of clay seams containing the specific clay needed for this type of ceramic. The area clay beds were the first to be discovered west of New Jersey. Proximity to the Monongahela River allowed the industry to expand past local sales to a wider distribution of stoneware to markets along the Monongahela, Ohio, and Mississippi Rivers.While the majority of the stoneware industry was centered at Greensboro and New Geneva, there were 15 stoneware pottery locations withing a roughly 30-mile radius of the clay deposits. This included locations in Springhill Township, Rices Landing, Fredericktown, West Brownsville, Washington, Uniontown, Perryopolis, East Pike Run, and Waynesburg.The Greensboro-New Geneva stoneware industry operated from roughly 1850 to 1920, with the peak occurring between 1870 and 1880. The stoneware and pottery industry began to decline around WWI with the increased use of the glass canning jar and new industrial processes that made the production of ceramic and glass storage far faster and cheaper than handmade pots, jugs, and crocks. The increasing availability of refrigerated storage in households also made the use of stoneware obsolete. The southwestern Pennsylvania pottery and stoneware industry was largely gone by 1920 and as a result the towns of Greensboro and New Geneva faced economic decline.
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The Francis Robert Bradford Sphere Collection includes almost 120 polished spheres of geological specimens from all over the world. Francis Robert Bradford attended Waynesburg College and studied geology under Dr. Paul R. Stewart. Bradford graduated in 1939 and spent more than 30 years creating this collection. The collection was displayed for a time at Hennen Jewelers in the Ft. Jackson Hotel in Waynesburg, PA. In the 1990s Bradford donated the collection to the Paul R. Stewart Museum at Waynesburg University.
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