It's All About the Glass

Dinosaur Outside the Museum

Yesterday after hitting up the Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, I wandered over to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History and Art. With my wallet feeling a bit light after paying for admission, I was SHOCKED and AMAZED to find that my Access Card would get me into the museum for $1.  Wahoo!  What was even better, was the fact that that $1 would get me into both museums - it turns out that they are connected on the inside. 

While wandering around I came across the Past Meets Present: Decorative Arts and Design exhibition; towards the back of the room they had a rew pieces of Tiffany Glass.  Recently it seems like Tiffany Glass has been all over so I was glad to see that I would be able to learn about its origins.  Here is the quick and dirty:

• Tiffany Glass is any glass developed/produced between 1878 and 1933 by Louis Comfort Tiffany at the Tiffany Studios
• 9 different types of glass were used in his creations, including favrile, old French for handmade, a technique designed by Tiffany.  This technique allows the glass to remain shiny while also giving it an opaque quality.  The combination of different techniques gave pieces a truly organic and realistic feel - something that became synonymous with Tiffany Glass. 
• After the studio closed, many of the techniques were lost and/or forgotten. Some have been recreated by other glass companies. 
• Louis Tiffany was an interior designer before he began his work with glass.  Some of his most notable works were Mark Twain's house and later the White House.
• Tiffany's father was the founder of Tiffany & Co and was their first Design Director. 
• The Charles Hosmer Morse Museum in Winter Park, FL has the larges collection of Tiffany's work today. 



All this talk about glass reminded me of my trip to the Heinze History Center where there was an exhibition of the glass industry in Pittsburgh.  While most know PGH for its iron and steel production, it was also one of the largest producers of glass thanks to a number of "perfect storm" factors.  First there was an abundant source of coal which meant a never ending supply of fuel for the factories.  Secondly, the Allegheny Mountains to the East protected them from the European market (transporting glass through the mountains was near impossible).  Finally, as we know Pittsburgh is surrounded by rivers which allowed factories to ship their products all across the United States and in some cases as far away as South America. 



By the time the Civil War rolled around, glass could be made cheaply and efficiently; soda lime could be substituted for lead.  In fact, nearly 45% of all the glass produced during the Civil War was produced in Pittsburgh; by the 1920 they had a hold on 80% of that same market. 

Fore more information on the beginning of the US glass business check out the Heinze History Center's publication.