Histia, Mary

Mary Histia was an Acoma Pueblo potter who lived from the early 1890s to 1973. She became active selling her pots in the marketplace while she was still a teenager. She mostly made polychrome-on-red and polychrome-on-white jars, bowls, ollas, animal figures, turkeys, turtles and owls.

In the 1930s she spent a lot of time in Washington DC as the unofficial potter to the President of the United States. With the help of John Collier, Secretary of the Department of the Interior, her pots came to decorate many government offices, including many overseas embassies.

Most Acoma potters didn’t sign their works until the middle of the century, they didn’t think it was important. Most of Mary’s pieces have been identified by comparing them to others of similar design that have been documented as having been made by her.