The Corning Museum of Glass will open two new
exhibit areas, the American and Crystal City
Galleries, on April 7, 2000.
Glassmaking was America’s first industry. The
American Gallery celebrates the development of
glassmaking in the United States and traces its
growth. Where once American glass mimicked
English and German design, it now has its own
vigorous tradition.
The glass pioneers -- Wistar, Stiegel, and Amelung
-- started manufacturing operations on the East
Coast in the 18th century. As Americans began to
move westward after the Revolutionary War,
glassmakers followed. New factories specialized in
window glass, bottles, and, later, pressed
tableware. The exhibit includes an area on mass
production demonstrating pressed glass tableware,
including mugs, pitchers, sugar bowls, creamers,
salt dishes, cup plates, and celery vases. Also on
display are glass drawer knobs, whiskey flasks
molded with images of historical figures, glass toys,
and the candlesticks and oil lamps used to
illuminate the dimly lit 19th-century homes.
The New England Glass Company, in continual
operation for 70 years, produced a full range of
domestic and utilitarian wares. Samples of their
commercial products and tableware are on display.
As they filled the demand for inexpensive pressed
tableware, glasshouses also continued to cut and
engrave glass. They supplied expensive glass
products similar to those sold in the European
market.
Benjamin Bakewell’s glasshouse, in operation for
almost 75 years, was noted for its high quality,
English-style cut lead glass favored by the wealthy.
The display area on the presidential services of
glass includes this firm’s creations and that of the
company, C. Dorflinger & Sons.
Glass containers continued to be an important part
of the American glass industry throughout the 19th
century. In 1880, the production of mold blown
hand finished, whiskey flasks, patent medicine
bottles, and preserving jars made up 25 percent of
glass manufacturing. The American Gallery includes
these products and a sampling of American
paperweights.
The Crystal City Gallery tells the story of
glassmaking in Corning, New York, a thriving
glassmaking center since 1868. In 1902, the New
York Sunday Tribune characterized Corning as the
Cut Glass City of New York State. At that time,
about 1,000 men, women, and boys were blowing
and finishing glass in the city’s one large factory.
Nearly another 1,000 worked in two large and half a
dozen small glass cutting and engraving
businesses scattered around town. Nowhere else in
America were so many people employed in the
glass cutting business.
Because Corning was a center for the production of
cut glass for nearly a century, the Museum’s
renovated galleries now include this permanent
exhibit focusing on this industry and its impact. The
Museum has the pre-eminent collection of cut and
engraved glass made in Corning. Some of these
rare objects were donated by the sons and
daughters of their makers. Several hundred
examples of this uniquely American style of glass
are included in this exhibit.
Visitors to the Crystal City Gallery will learn that:
Most of the early glass craftsmen came to
Corning from Europe. Both Hoare and
Hawkes, proprietors of the city’s largest
cutting shops, were Irish. France, Germany,
and Bohemia also provided workers, but
after 1900, many of the workers were
American-born and trained in Corning’s
factories.
Corning’s glass engravers used an
assortment of copper wheels, ranging in
diameter from about an inch and a half to
the size of a pinhead, to produce incredibly
detailed designs.
Corning-made cut glass was very popular
with America’s presidents. The Hoare firm
supplied a set of glassware to President
Grant in 1873, and the Hawkes shop
provided glass for Presidents Cleveland,
Harrison, McKinley, Franklin D. Roosevelt,
Truman, and Eisenhower.
One of Corning’s most remarkable
glassmakers was Frederick Carder
(1863-1963), an English-born designer who
was director of Steuben Glass Works
(1903-1933), and art director at Corning
Glass Works (1933-1944). He created glass
colors and shapes, pioneered decorative
processes, and experimented with early
techniques, such as the making of millefiori
glass.
The Museum has been undergoing a $65 million
renovation since 1996, which concludes this year.
The Museum will also open these new areas in
2000:
May 27 35 Centuries of Glassmaking
July 21 New Rakow Library
October 7 Modern Glass Gallery
The Corning Museum of Glass, opened in 1951, is
an independent, non-profit, educational institution,
dedicated to the art, history, research, and exhibition
of glass and glassmaking. The Museum houses the
world’s premier glass collection - more than 35,000
objects representing 3,500 years of glass
craftsmanship and design.
The Museum includes the Glass Innovation Center,
presenting stories of life-changing glass
technologies; the Sculpture Gallery, focused on
contemporary glass sculpture; the Art and History
Galleries, which contain the world’s most
comprehensive collection of glass; The Hot Glass
Show with daily glassblowing demonstrations;
Flameworking Live! with daily glassmaking
demonstrations; and the Rakow Library, the world’s
most comprehensive library on the history and art of
glass. The Museum campus also includes The
Studio, an educational and artistic glassmaking
facility; two eateries; an orientation theatre; an
auditorium; and seven Museum Shops, which
include art glass, glass jewelry, books on glass, and
consumer glass products.
The Corning Museum of Glass, located at One
Corning Glass Center, Corning, NY 14830, is open
daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. From July through Labor
Day, it is open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.
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