Glass Collection Galleries
The Glass Collection Galleries show the most comprehensive and celebrated glass collection in the world. The galleries explore Near Eastern, Asian, European, and American glass and glassmaking from antiquity through present day. They tell the story of glass creation, from a full-scale model of an Egyptian furnace to the grand factories of Europe, and, then America, and finally, to the small-scale furnaces that fueled the Studio Glass movement that began in America in 1962. The galleries contain objects representing every country and historical period in which glassmaking has been practiced.
The story of glass began more than 3,500 years ago and the galleries document the triumphs of glassmaking history. Several galleries feature a tableau that further illustrates how the objects were found, created, or sold.
This gallery illustrates the ingenuity of the earliest glassmakers, who used a variety of techniques to shape and decorate glass objects. These objects include vessels, jewelry, inlays, and sculpture.
The discovery of glassblowing during the Roman period made glass affordable and widely available for ordinary domestic purposes. However, the Romans also produced some of the most lavish luxury glass ever made. This gallery displays both the beauty and the versatility of the Roman glassmaker's art.
In addition to discovering glass staining, the Islamic craftsmen made improvements in a number of techniques that had been used to produce glass in the ancient world.
Glass from the medieval period through the Renaissance is featured in this gallery. Included are forest glass, stained glass windows, and engraved luxury drinking vessels. The gallery also focuses on glassmaking from Venice and its influence on glass production in other European Countries.
This gallery presents a broad range of glass from the Baroque to late Victorian periods. There are many examples of English lead glass and Bohemian chalk glass, two pivotal 17th-century innovations. Other displays include glass furniture, chandeliers, and objects made for world's fairs.
Carved ceremonial objects from early China blown and cut vessels made in Japan, beaded containers from Indonesia, and a variety of luxury glassware from India exeplify glass production in Asia.
This gallery displays the earliest glass made in the United States. It traces the development of mechanical pressing, America's most important contribution to glassmaking. There is also a model of a factory for blowing window glass.
At the turn of the 20th century, Corning was a famous center for glass cutting. Objects made in many of the city's large and small cutting shops are shown in this gallery, which also includes a model of a glass factory and a life-size representation of a glass cutter at work.
The Corning Museum of Glass houses the world's largest and most comprehensive collection of paperweights. This display presents the finest pieces made by European companies in the 19th century, as well as some outstanding modern examples.
This gallery shows one-of-a-kind and limited production art glass vessels, stained glass, furniture, lighting, and decorative objects and accessories from about 1880 to 1960. International in scope, the gallery emphasizes the use of glass as a medium for artistic expression.
The Studio Glass movement, the last and most energetic art glass movement of the 20th century, is the focus of this gallery. It features vessels, objects, sculpture, stained glass, furniture, and lighting that date from the late 1960s to the early 1990s.
The Study Gallery is an open storage area that is filled with a wide range of objects from all periods. It is named after a donor who gave the Museum an outstanding collection of drinking vessels. Some of these glasses are housed in the main galleries, and others can be seen in the Study Gallery.
Most museums have more objects than space in which those objects can be adequately displayed for visitors. A study gallery is usually intended to be an open storage area. Here, the museum houses many of the objects for which there is no room in the principal galleries.
At The Corning Museum of Glass, the Study Gallery is designed so that a student or collector can study many examples of the type of glass in which he or she is interested. The objects are arranged by subject area—ancient, American, European, Asian, and Modern—and by place of origin. Visitors who want to study whiskey flasks, lamps, or cup plates, for example, will be able to see all of these objects in a variety of colors and styles.
The Study Gallery is named after Museum benefactors Jerome and Lucille Strauss. By gift and bequest, Mr. Strauss provided us with an unparalleled collection of 2,400 drinking glasses dating from ancient to modern times. His wife left us sufficient money to build the gallery. The Strauss Collection is displayed in several locations. The most important pieces are in the primary galleries, and other objects are found in the Study Gallery.