A system for categorizing
Kim Allman \ Rebecca Driscoll \
Dalene Johnson-Lowery \ Jenelle
Krohn \ Ciara Meeks \ Jennifer Pollard
• We have defined ceramics as “hand-made or unique pottery,
sculptural items, and/or decorative items made from various
clay silicate materials from the 19th century to today.”
• Provides a clear boundary between archeological ceramics and “fine art”
ceramics
• Eliminates objects with a dual nature
• Eliminates mass-produced items
• May include utilitarian objects (plates, bowls, etc.)
• Cataloguing Cultural Objects: A Guide to Describing Cultural
Objects and their Images
• “A guide for museums, archives, and libraries for cataloging cultural
items… the goal is to provide a set of best practices for cataloguing and
other purposes” (Mugride, 2006).
• Required fields: work type; title, creator display; creation date, subject;
current location; measurements; and materials and techniques
• Categories for the Description of Works of Art
• Created to assist anyone who records, maintains, and retrieves information
about art.
• Require fields: object/work; classification; titles or names; creation;
measurements; materials and techniques; subject-matter; and current
location
• Digital Archeological Archive of Comparative Slavery
• Organization that finds, preserves, and analyzes artifacts related to
slaves during the antebellum South and Caribbean.
• Has developed a classification method to identify and catalog pottery
fragments (sherds)
• Relevant fields: Type of material; decoration description; functional use;
geographic location
• EMU
• Used by the Charlotte Mint Museum of Art
• Required fields: Type; surface; style; dimensions; artist; title; where is it
from?; photographic record; notes
• We came to similar conclusions on which fields would work best
for our schema.
• Defining the scope of our collections helped us to narrow those
fields further.
• Based upon the common elements in the existing systems and
our individual schemas, we came up with this system:
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Object Type
Creator
Materials
Title
Measurements
Techniques
Geographic Origin
Creation Date
Accession Number
Current Location
Notes
• Object Type
• May use more than one work type if necessary
• Creator
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List everyone who is known to have contributed to the object’s creation
First name then last name (life span of creator), role [i.e. designer, painter, etc.)
If creator is unknown, use the culture or nationality from which the piece originated
Field includes creation date
• Materials
• One of three materials
• Stoneware (specify: jaspwerware and black basalt)
• Earthenware
• Porcelain (specify type of paste used, if known)
• Specify type of glaze, if known
• Tin
• Lead
• Luster
• Title
• If given a title by artist/art community, use that title
• If no title is given, create a name to describe the piece
• Describe the images on the work, the color, or other obvious identifiers
• Measurements
• Height, width, and depth
• Both metric and U.S. standard measurements
• Techniques
• Method of construction used to create the object
• Wheel thrown construction
• Slab construction
• Coil construction
• Mixed media
• Geographic Origin
• Country of origin
• May include region or state
• Creation Date
• As specific as possible
• Ascension Number
• Current Location
• Name of the institute that has the physical object, then the geographic
location
• Notes
• Any additional information not already covered in previous fields
• May include a brief description of the creator, a particular art movement, or
the art style of the object
Object Type
Thirty gallon jug
Creator
Bourne, Baker & Bourne
Materials
Earthenware
Title
Untitled
Measurements
Height: 9 in., Diameter: 4.5
Techniques
Lead-glazed earthenware, transfer-printed
before glazing
Geographic
Origin
Staffordshire, England
Date Made
Ca.1830
Accession
number
Current
Location
Notes
110812.007.1830.ENG
On display, Gallery A
Given by Mrs Illidge. Formerly in the London
showrooms of Messrs Neale & Bailey. Although
not intended for use, this tour de force of
Staffordshire pottery illustrates a typical product
of 19th-century ceramics: blue-and-white,
transfer-printed earthenware.
Object Type
Teapot
Creator
Mark Pharis
Materials
Earthenware
Title
Teapot
Measurements
Height: 5.25 in
Techniques
slab-built, glazed
Geographic
Origin
American
Date Made
2011
Accession
number
110812.027.2011.AME
Current
Location
Notes
Off-site storage
Gift of Katherine Rines
Object Type
Handmade tile
Creator
Bede Clark
Materials
Earthenware
Title
Float
Measurements
Height: 12 in, Width: 12 in. , Depth: .5 in.
Techniques
Hand-built slab, engobes, cone 3 fired
Geographic
Origin
American
Date Made
2003
Accession
number
Current
Location
Notes
110812.002.2003.AME
On loan
Object Type
Face jug
Creator
Kim Leftwich
Materials
Stoneware, porcelain, and steel
Title
Untitled
Measurements
Height: 14 in.
Techniques
Thrown stoneware, coil, and slab built and high
fired, with steel springs attached creating a mixmedia piece.
Brasstown, NC
Geographic
Origin
Date Made
Unknown
Accession
number
20121106.008.01.01.008.NC.
Current
Location
Notes
On display, gallery A
Face jug, two ovoid shapes attached to form a
body and head. Coil built arms are attached to
the lower body to form handles with one going to
the body and other raised toward the head
resting on the left cheek of the face. Eyes and
teeth are porcelain. Steel wire has been
attached to top of head to create hair. The jug
has an olive green and brown glaze.
Object Type
Sculpture
Creator
Herb Cohen
Materials
Stoneware
Title
Untitled
Measurements
16 x 8.5 x 5 in.
Techniques
Hand-built
Geographic
Origin
American
Date Made
Ca. 2006
Accession
number
Current
Location
Notes
2012.12.2006.1
LIS Museum, Greensboro , NC
• CDWA strongest influence on this final method
• Elements of all the schemas we found
• Group members visited local art museums, and talked with
curators and art historians
• Our schema provides control language, ease of understanding,
and could be used to present a collection in multiple formats
Kim Allman \ Classification system outline
Rebecca Driscoll \ Presentation construction
Dalene Johnson-Lowery \ Presenter
Jenelle Krohn \ Presenter
Ciara Meeks \ Presentation construction
Jennifer Pollard \Presenter
Mugride, R. L. (2006). Cataloging Cultural Objects: Toward a
Metadata Content Standard For Libraries, Archives, And Museums.
A Report Of the ALCTS CCS Program. American Library
Association Annual Conference, Chicago, June 2005. Technical
Services Report , 24 (1), 73-75.