Susan was born and raised in Milwaukee Wisconsin. She attended Wheelock’s School for Girls and went to New York for finishing school. While at Wheelock’s School, she took art lessons from Henry Vianden who taught at the school and had a studio on a location that is now part of the Forest Home Cemetery.
Susan was married to Richard Frackelton in 1869. They built a house in Milwaukee where she would teach art classes, porcelain painting and pottery. Susan began as a landscape artist but soon began to experiment with molding and coloring the local clay into pottery. Her ceramics work and original china painting techniques won international acclaim including nine awards at the 1893 World’s Fair.
Susan wrote the book, Tried by Fire, in 1885 that explains and illustrates her techniques for painting on ceramics. She invented a portable gas kiln that allowed women to make pottery in their own homes. She and Martha Reed Mitchell were vanguards in a movement to launch the Wisconsin Art Institute in Milwaukee.
Susan created the magnificent illuminated manuscript, Voices of Friends Concerning John Plankinton Milwaukee’s Foremost Citizen The Father of the West Side. The 100-page book was commissioned by Elizabeth Ann Plankinton to honor her father, John Plankinton, after his passing. Susan’s daughter Gladys Frackelton Seely hand-lettered all of the printing in the book. The beautiful book, Voices of Friends Concerning John Plankinton, is now maintained in the Richard and Lucille Krug Rare Books Room at the Milwaukee Downtown Public Library and can be viewed by appointment.
(Bio: Anita Pietrykowski)
Susan was married to Richard Frackelton in 1869. They built a house in Milwaukee where she would teach art classes, porcelain painting and pottery. Susan began as a landscape artist but soon began to experiment with molding and coloring the local clay into pottery. Her ceramics work and original china painting techniques won international acclaim including nine awards at the 1893 World’s Fair.
Susan wrote the book, Tried by Fire, in 1885 that explains and illustrates her techniques for painting on ceramics. She invented a portable gas kiln that allowed women to make pottery in their own homes. She and Martha Reed Mitchell were vanguards in a movement to launch the Wisconsin Art Institute in Milwaukee.
Susan created the magnificent illuminated manuscript, Voices of Friends Concerning John Plankinton Milwaukee’s Foremost Citizen The Father of the West Side. The 100-page book was commissioned by Elizabeth Ann Plankinton to honor her father, John Plankinton, after his passing. Susan’s daughter Gladys Frackelton Seely hand-lettered all of the printing in the book. The beautiful book, Voices of Friends Concerning John Plankinton, is now maintained in the Richard and Lucille Krug Rare Books Room at the Milwaukee Downtown Public Library and can be viewed by appointment.
(Bio: Anita Pietrykowski)
Susan was born and raised in Milwaukee Wisconsin. She attended Wheelock’s School for Girls and went to New York for finishing school. While at Wheelock’s School, she took art lessons from Henry Vianden who taught at the school and had a studio on a location that is now part of the Forest Home Cemetery.
Susan was married to Richard Frackelton in 1869. They built a house in Milwaukee where she would teach art classes, porcelain painting and pottery. Susan began as a landscape artist but soon began to experiment with molding and coloring the local clay into pottery. Her ceramics work and original china painting techniques won international acclaim including nine awards at the 1893 World’s Fair.
Susan wrote the book, Tried by Fire, in 1885 that explains and illustrates her techniques for painting on ceramics. She invented a portable gas kiln that allowed women to make pottery in their own homes. She and Martha Reed Mitchell were vanguards in a movement to launch the Wisconsin Art Institute in Milwaukee.
Susan created the magnificent illuminated manuscript, Voices of Friends Concerning John Plankinton Milwaukee’s Foremost Citizen The Father of the West Side. The 100-page book was commissioned by Elizabeth Ann Plankinton to honor her father, John Plankinton, after his passing. Susan’s daughter Gladys Frackelton Seely hand-lettered all of the printing in the book. The beautiful book, Voices of Friends Concerning John Plankinton, is now maintained in the Richard and Lucille Krug Rare Books Room at the Milwaukee Downtown Public Library and can be viewed by appointment.
(Bio: Anita Pietrykowski)
Susan was married to Richard Frackelton in 1869. They built a house in Milwaukee where she would teach art classes, porcelain painting and pottery. Susan began as a landscape artist but soon began to experiment with molding and coloring the local clay into pottery. Her ceramics work and original china painting techniques won international acclaim including nine awards at the 1893 World’s Fair.
Susan wrote the book, Tried by Fire, in 1885 that explains and illustrates her techniques for painting on ceramics. She invented a portable gas kiln that allowed women to make pottery in their own homes. She and Martha Reed Mitchell were vanguards in a movement to launch the Wisconsin Art Institute in Milwaukee.
Susan created the magnificent illuminated manuscript, Voices of Friends Concerning John Plankinton Milwaukee’s Foremost Citizen The Father of the West Side. The 100-page book was commissioned by Elizabeth Ann Plankinton to honor her father, John Plankinton, after his passing. Susan’s daughter Gladys Frackelton Seely hand-lettered all of the printing in the book. The beautiful book, Voices of Friends Concerning John Plankinton, is now maintained in the Richard and Lucille Krug Rare Books Room at the Milwaukee Downtown Public Library and can be viewed by appointment.
(Bio: Anita Pietrykowski)
Family Members
See more Frackelton or Goodrich memorials in:
- Forest Home Cemetery Frackelton or Goodrich
- Milwaukee Frackelton or Goodrich
- Milwaukee County Frackelton or Goodrich
- Wisconsin Frackelton or Goodrich
- USA Frackelton or Goodrich
- Find a Grave Frackelton or Goodrich
