Connections between Ohio and East Asia in the 19th century may seem difficult to establish. However, during this time the flourishing of Cincinnati’s Rookwood Pottery Company took inspiration from Japanese ceramics. In 1876, Rookwood founder Maria Longworth Nichols Storer visited the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia and was fascinated by the design and beauty of the ceramic work exhibited there by the Japanese government. Her admiration led her to incorporate Japanese motifs into her pottery. The ceramics she and others made for local audiences helped to spread japonisme , the popular fad for Japanese art and design.
Annette Covington, an 1895 graduate of the Western College for Women (now a part of Miami University) traveled to Japan from 1908 to 1909. Taking leave from her teaching position at the Art Institute of Chicago, Covington visited Japan where she enthusiastically documented her fascination with Japan through oil paintings, drawings and letters. In a letter to friends in Oxford, Covington wrote, “The changing light on the mountains is a continuous charm— the place reminds me of Florence,” and, “I wish I could drop the teaching and go in for work here in Japan until I had a collection of work to exhibit and sell in London. It makes one weep to see the splendid prices that are now paid for the most modern men’s work.”
