The Role of Technological Transitions in the Development of American Ceramic Industries: Elijah Cornell and the Shift from Redware to Stoneware Production.

In the mid-1800s, the construction of canal and rail networks profoundly affected ceramic manufacturing in New York. State by lowering the cost of transporting stoneware clay and finished vessels. Consumer demand for stoneware storage containers, energized by lower prices and increased availability, spurred the development of stoneware potteries across the state. Many American earthenware potters shifted partially or entirely over to stoneware production. This paper contends that the difficult transition between ceramic manufacturing technologies played a role in the decline of the handicraft pottery industry in the early 20th century. Stoneware production required firsthand instruction, large capital investments and resource networks, new labor structures, and an understanding of changing consumer expectations. The analysis uses documentary and archaeological evidence from the potter Elijah Cornell as a case study of technological change in the operation of a traditional American earthenware business. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]