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One of the finest pottery artists in history, Nampeyo [also: Num-pa-pu/Nampaya] (1859 or 1860-1942) was a Hopi-Tewa artisan who spearheaded the Sikyátki Revival, an artistic movement reviving the styles of her ancestors' hundreds of years ago, before European contact on the Americas.

A noted Native American artist who achieved worldwide fame, one of her pots set the record for Southwest American Indian pottery when it sold for $350,000 in 2010--68 years after her death!

The daughter of a Tewa Puebloan of the Corn Clan, her father was of the Snake Clan. Due to matrilineal descent, Nampeyo was also born into the Tewa Corn Clan on Hopi lands.

She never learned to read or write, but learned to make and sell pottery from her paternal grandmother. As she worked, she became interested in ancient pottery. Nampeyo and her husband Lesou worked with the archaeologist J. Walter Fewkes on the excavation of the Sikyátki ruins.

[An unearthed Sikyátki pot with a moth design Nampeyo used as a reference]

The Sikyátki archeological site was inhabited by the Hopi from the 14th to 17th century, and left behind a many ceramic potsherds from which Nampeyo drew her inspiration.

Inspired by these designs, Nampeyo went on to create some of the most beautiful pottery in the art world. Her designs were elegant, evocative, and easily recognizable for their quality and the skill with which she would add many types of clay and colors to a single piece.

As she aged, she began to lose her sight. She continued making pots even when she lost the ability to decorate them herself--by this point she had trained her husband and the next four generations of her family, who were able to complete her works. Her artistic traditions survive today in her descendants.

August 3rd, 1936 Jesse Owens wins the 100 meter dash at the Berlin Olympics.

Title: Baby John Being Nursed

Artist: Mary Cassatt

Date: 1910

Style: Impressionism