The Kiln Club of Washington, D.C. was organized in 1946 with a membership of seventeen. The original group was drawn from working artists and advanced ceramic class students taught by Ollie Palmer Long at Friendship Settlement House in Southeast Washington.

From 1950 through 1965, the Kiln Club organized, first annually, then biennially, the International Ceramic Exhibition at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. The shows were in three sections: regional, invitational and international. It gave many a first look at the work of national and international ceramists.

Since 1974 the main exhibition site for work by Juried Members of the Kiln Club is Scope Gallery.