Saturday Evening Girls (SEG) was the name given to a weekly library reading group, formed in 1899 in Boston, under the auspices of Edith Guerrier, a librarian at the Boston Public Library. The group’s members were largely the daughters of Italian and Jewish immigrants settled in Boston’s North End. Soon, the focus of the library reading group expanded with a curriculum designed to supplement school and including dancing and music. Additional reading groups were formed, organized by age and named after the day of the week that they met. In 1908, looking to create opportunities for the reading group members and backed by a local female philanthropist, a pottery was established to teach the young women skills and paid employment. The pottery was located near Old North Church, the same church were Revere had seen the lantern signals from its spire and so the name Paul Revere Pottery was used to signify the pottery’s Boston and American traditions. Inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement the Paul Revere pottery produced a range of wares for the home and the female decorators earned a living wage and worked in organized, safe, surroundings. The pottery met with success but the advent of World War I interrupted production. After the war, as styles changed the pottery adapted and managed to survive until 1942. A number of the female decorators have been identified and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, received a large donation of 130 ceramic pieces from the son of one of the most prolific decorator’s, Sara Galner. A 2007 exhibition led to a book on the Saturday Evening Girls raising the profile of this largely forgotten group of immigrant female pottery decorators.
Child' s Bowl and Plate, 1917, Marked: 'T.M. S.E.G. RB' Earthenware, MFA Boston
Plate, 1912, Earthenware, MFA Boston
Vase, decorator Sara Galner, Earthenware, Metropolitan Museum, New York