Mildred Mann Papers. MS 96-10. Special Collections, UNLV Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Donated in 1996.
Joyce Marshall, April 1996.
This collection is open for research.
For permission to reproduce or publish from this collection, please contact the Director of Special Collections.
Mildred Mann was born on May 20, 1910 in St. Joseph, Missouri, where she spent her youth and early adulthood. After WWII, she and her husband Arthur moved to Nevada and settled in North Las Vegas. They homesteaded property on Bassler Avenue and Mildred immediately became active in community affairs. She lobbied for paved streets and street lights, worked to increase voter registration, and served on various committees related to city government.
Mann was a member of the Ground Observer Corps, Home League, Ladies of the Salvation Army, Eastern Star, and Rebekahs. The activities that she would hold most dear, however, were in the ceramics industry. Mildred was a founding member of the Nevada State Ceramic Association and instrumental in getting Nevada affiliated with the National Ceramic Association. Her love of teaching led her to set up a ceramics program at the Las Vegas Blind Center. She served as the director of that program for more than thirty years, devoting countless hours to teaching the vision impaired, including a very successful children’s program. In addition, she operated Mil-Art Studio in her home and taught porcelain art at the Community College of Southern Nevada from 1976 to 1989; the wait to get into one of her classes was sometimes as long as three years..
Mildred was involved in many craft programs for the Parks and Recreation Department and, in 1978 designed craft projects for Sears. For C.E.T.A.’s Project Earth she became a pilot teacher of the handicapped and disabled at the National Ceramic Association Education Foundation headquarters in Cosby, Tennessee. After attaining master status in all facets of the ceramic industry, Mildred was instrumental in designing and administering tests for future teachers and judges of earthenware and porcelain.
Mann was honored with a lifetime achievement award by the National Ceramic Association and a ceramic program for the visually impaired was named for her in Cosby, Tennessee. Her involvement in the fired arts spanned over thirty-four years and remained constant until her death in March of 1996.
The scope of this collection is comprehensive as it contains some material from all facets of Mildred’s life. Material from her involvement in ceramics comprises the majority of this collection. Series 1. Ceramics is divided into three subseries: 1.1 The Blind Center of Southern Nevada; 1.2 Local Activities; 1.3 International Activities. Every area of the ceramics industry is represented in this series, from casting of the greenware to the finished product. Included are manuals, teaching aids, judging booklets, and ceramics magazines and newsletters produced locally and nationally. Correspondence to and from Mildred Mann, convention material, trade journals, programs, Community College schedules and rosters are also included.
The material from her involvement in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF) women’s auxiliary, the Rebekahs, is the most extensive of the women’s organizations she belonged to and is separated into its own series. Included are membership lists, newsletters, correspondence, newspaper clippings, and miscellaneous memorabilia.
There is a personal series that holds many family photos, scrapbooks, and other memorabilia from Mann’s childhood, as well as post cards and letters from her husband and sisters. House papers, membership cards, a newspaper clippings are also included. A scrapbook devoted to her son Arthur Dennis, who died as a young boy, and her early school material complete this series. Finally, Mann’s many awards, certificates and merits of service round out the collection.
The collection is divided into three series and three subseries:
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For related topics and further information see the following collections:
Doris Hancock Collection, MS 87-59
L. Paul Mercer Collection, Mss 46
Vivian Woods Collection, MS 95-16