Monmouth was one of the country’s biggest stoneware producers for over a century, and the Stoneware Museum of Monmouth exists to keep that history from disappearing. Founder Raymond Brinkmann built the collection more than 1,200 pieces spanning roughly 150 years, most still his own, on long-term loan for public education covering every local pottery that operated here: Monmouth Mining & Manufacturing (3M), Monmouth Pottery, Weir Pottery, Maple City Pottery, and Western Stoneware. Crocks, jugs, butter churns, water coolers, art pottery, and garden ware fill the museum, tracing the industry from Monmouth Pottery’s founding in the early 1890s when it claimed to be the world’s largest pottery, producing six million gallons of stoneware a year through Western Stoneware’s eventual century-long run from 1906 to 2006.
The museum is open Saturdays, April through October, 9 a.m.– 4 p.m., or by appointment, at 507 South Sunny Lane — a few blocks from the Warren County History Museum on the same street. Its annual Stoneware Fest each June has grown into a real draw for collectors, now drawing 60-plus vendors from across the country.