Mary Given Sheerer

Mary Given Sheerer (1865–1954) was an American ceramicist, designer, and art educator, best known for her affiliation with the Newcomb Pottery project at H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College, now part of Tulane University.

Biography Sheerer was born in Covington, Kentucky in 1865. She studied art in Massachusetts, the Art Students League of New York, under Hugh Breckenridge at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and graduated from the Art Academy of Cincinnati. While living in Covington in the early 1890s, she worked at Rookwood Pottery Company. Sheerer was a member of the Cincinnati Museum Association, Cincinnati Crafters Club, New Orleans Art Association, Cincinnati Women's Art Club, and the American Federation of Arts. Her works were displayed at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in 1904, and the Panama–Pacific International Exposition held in San Francisco in 1915.

Sheerer was responsible for setting standards and guiding Newcomb Pottery's day-to-day production.

She gave technical advice to Mississippi ceramicist Peter Anderson.

Sheerer retired from the Newcomb faculty in 1931. Post Sheerer's retirement from Newcomb Pottery, she was awarded as a fellow of the American Ceramic Society on March 11, 1931. She died in December 1954 in Cincinnati and is buried at Highland Cemetery, Fort Mitchell, Kentucky.