Harding Black continued to work into his 80s, but decades of throwing clay and mixing glazes had taken a toll on his health.  In 1995, Black donated his extensive collection of research notes, and nearly 12,000 ceramic objects from his personal collection to Baylor University, so that his research could be preserved intact and made available to all who wished to study it.

In 2015, Baylor’s Texas Collection archive partnered with the Department of Art on a year-long effort to process and digitize Black’s glaze notebooks, as well as photographically document thousands of ceramic objects to create a searchable, digital collection of Black’s work.

Harding Black passed away on May 2, 2004, after a lifetime devoted to furthering the ceramic arts.  A true artist and scholar, Black’s abiding concern at the end of his career was that his research not end with him, but be preserved for future generations of ceramic artists and researchers.  The Texas Collection is proud to commemorate the life and work of one of the most pivotal figures in the history of American studio ceramics.