Mary Louise McLaughlin was an American ceramic painter and studio potter from Cincinnati, Ohio, and the main local competitor of Maria Longworth Nichols Storer, who founded Rookwood Pottery. Like Storer, McLaughlin was one of the originators of the art pottery movement that swept the United States.

Mary Louise McLaughlin was born to a wealthy family of Cincinnati, her father being the owner of a successful dry goods company in the city. Her older brother was architect James W. McLaughlin. Showing an artistic ability at a young age, McLaughlin did not take formal art lessons until 1871 at a private school for girls. At Cincinnati's School of Design in 1874, McLaughlin took a porcelain painting class offered by a Mr. Benn Pitman. Durin...