Louise Allison Cort Collection

The collection contains materials related to Louise Cort's book "Shigaraki, Potters' Valley" (1979, 2000), concerning ceramics manufactured in the Shigaraki area of Japan. Primarily research-related, the collection includes her dissertation, research notes, index card files, originals and copies of source materials, drawings/sketches, and photographic materials (primarily black and white, some color; formats include prints, contact sheets, and negatives). Also included are post-publication materials, including royalty statements and related correspondence, clippings of reviews, correspondence, and other materials related to Cort's ongoing interest in Shigaraki.

Louise Allison Cort was born in 1944 in Philadelphia to parents John Shaw Cort Jr. and Mary Yunck Cort. Her interest in Asian ceramics began after traveling to Japan in 1961 as part of the American Field Service's high school exchange student program. She was particularly interested in the everyday wares used by her host mother. While in college, she took an intensive Japanese language course, and she traveled to Tokyo for further language study in graduate school. She received her Bachelor of Arts in English from Simmons College, with a minor in art history. Cort then received her graduate degree from Oxford University, studying Japanese art history. In March 1968, she traveled to Shigaraki for the first time, inspired by the Shigaraki ceramics she had seen in her visits to Japanese museums. She returned multiple times to research Shigaraki's history, ceramics, and modern life. For over three years (1976-1979), Cort lived in Kyoto while doing research for her book, Shigaraki, Potters' Valley. Later, she traveled to India for a year and a half (1979-1981) to research earthenware, resulting in the book Temple Potters of Puri (2012), coauthored with Purna Chandra Mishra. Those materials are held by the South Asian Institute archives of Heidelberg University, Germany, and film footage is in the Human Studies Film Archive, Smithsonian Institution. The archives of her research on present-day ceramics in mainland Southeast Asia between 1986 and 2018 in collaboration with Leedom Lefferts is held by the Yale University archive. 

From 1969 to 1976, she served as Assistant Curator of Oriental Art at the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University. In 1981, she began her work at the Freer Gallery of Art as a Museum Specialist, serving in that role until 1989. From 1989 to 1994, she was Assistant Curator, and then moved to Associate Curator from 1994 to 1995. Cort then held the position of Curator of Ceramics from 1995 until her retirement in 2018. She remains curator emerita. As a scholar, her interests focused on historic and contemporary Asian ceramics, as well as other craft traditions. She published her first book "Shigaraki, Potters' Valley" in 1979. Her book was reprinted in 2000. Cort has published numerous other articles and books relating to Japanese, Southeast Asian, and South Asian art. These include Temple Potters of Puri (with Purna Chandra Mishra) in 2012 and Chigusa and the Art of Tea (with Andrew Watsky) in 2014. She received the Koyama Fujio Memorial Prize and the Smithsonian Distinguished Scholar Award in 2012 for her contributions to research on Japanese ceramics.

Cort, Louise Allison, 1944-

Louise Allison Cort Collection

Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Louise Allison Cort Collection. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

Cort, Louise A and Andrew Watsky. "Chigusa and the Art of Tea." New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2014.

Cort, Louise A. "Seto and Mino ceramics." Washington, D.C.: Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, 1992.

Cort, Louise A. "Shigaraki, Potters' Valley." New York: Weatherhill, Inc., 2000.


Cort, Louise A. and Purna Chandra Mishra. "Temple potters of Puri." New Jersey: Grantha, 2012.

Lefferts, Leedom and Louise A. Cort. "Leedom Lefferts and Louise Allison Cort Archives." Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History. New Haven, CT: Archives at Yale. https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/15/resources/12290#