MARCH 1999 V. 63, N. 3
| FEATURE | MARCH 1999 V. 63, N. 3 | | |
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 West Virginia Glass Glitters at Oglebay Museum By David Zuchowski Photographs by David Fattaleh "People usually think of Wheeling in terms of steel," says Holly McCluskey, curator of glass at the Oglebay Institute Glass Museum. "Glass manufacturing was another of the city's big businesses." Make that Big Businesses with two capital B's. "By the turn of the century, about half of the country's pressed-glass tableware was manufactured in the Wheeling-Pittsburgh corridor, and one out of 10 Wheeling workers was employed in the glass industry," says McCluskey. There were several reasons why the glass industry flourished in the Ohio River Valley. All the necessary resources were there in great abundance. Natural gas, needed to fire the ovens, was plentiful. The river provided a transportation route for getting the finished product to market, and the labor supply seemed as unlimited as it was hard working. "Immigrants from Europe worked the steel mills and coal mines of the Northern Panhandle," says McCluskey. "When the local glass factories needed workers, these immigrants would write to their glass-making relatives back home and tell them of the opportunities in their adopted homeland."  Appropriately, the $1.8 million Carriage House Glass complex at Wheeling's Oglebay Park, which includes the museum, honors the West Virginia glass industry in a big way. A demonstration area where glass blowers, a glass cutter, and glass decorator ply their centuries old trades shares one floor of the building with the museum, a showcase for one of the largest collections of Wheeling glass in the world. Approximately 3,000 pieces representing the years 1829 to 1939 are exhibited there. To make the tours more accessible and easier to digest, acoustiguides enable visitors to take an electronic excursion through the collection. The infrared activated devices allow tour takers to proceed at their own pace, in any desired order, with the option of further narrative for in-depth information, simply by pushing a button. Five of Wheeling's most significant glass makers Ritchie, Sweeney, Central, Hobbs-Brockunier and Northwood are represented in the collection, which is arranged chronologically from oldest to newest producer. All of the pieces are owned by Oglebay Institute. This cultural arts organization began the collection in 1937 when a Sweeney daughter donated several of her pieces to the Institute. New donations increase the collection annually. An extensive roster of donors lies near the visitor's desk. McCluskey says that she and collections curator Jerry Reilly have tried to accord each major factory display with a theme. The Sweeney exhibit, for instance, deals with a proprietary family that resided in Wheeling for many years. Along with examples of the company's #glassware, many personal and family mementos like Mrs. Sweeney's wedding gown and a chair from the family estate are included in the display. The entire display is rooted by a photo of the stately Sweeney mansion which one visitor described as "the most elegant home in Wheeling." The window glass in the frame positioned near the photo was salvaged from the house before it was demolished.  Perhaps the most stunning object in the museum is the Sweeney Punchbowl. Five feet tall and weighing close to 225 pounds, the piece is thought to be one of the largest cut leaded crystal pieces ever made. McCluskey says, "It's virtually priceless, mainly because no one today has the ability to make another like it." Between a video area and an interesting historic piece known as the Cleveland Vase is an animated figure of William Leighton Jr., son of a famous Wheeling chemist who revolutionized the glass industry. The realistic, life-sized mannequin moves and "speaks" to tell the story of how his father created a formula for the Hobbs-Brockunier Company that made mass production of pressed glass products possible. This formula enabled manufacturers to turn luxury glass items made with wealthy clients in mind into products affordable and accessible to millions of middle-class Americans. Hobbs-Brockunier produced an interesting line, a piece or two of which, McCluskey says, "no serious collector would want to be without." The fad-driven design was a rage set into motion in 1886 when a New York matron auctioned off her art collection, which included a Chinese porcelain vase colored in what one interested party described as "Peachblow." The vase sold for $18,000, an unbelievably large sum for its day, and everyone went Peachblow crazy. Businesses like cosmetics firms and glass makers, including Hobbs-Brockunier, capitalized on the frenzy by producing a whole line of products colored in the red-to-yellow-to-cream spectral sequence. In the era of pressed glass, one of the firms that capitalized on Leighton's new formula was Northwood. In addition to making affordable glassware for the masses, Northwood also produced a type of glass now known as Carnival, affectionately referred to as "the poor man's Tiffany." Carnival glass has an almost luminescent rainbow effect produced by spraying the still-warm object with various chemicals. Popular from 1907 to 1915, Carnival glassware fell out of favor during WWI when clear, colorless stemware became the darling of the buying public. A sudden, precipitous drop in sales meant that a huge inventory remained stockpiled in warehouses. Legend has it that it was eventually given away as prizes to game winners at fairs and carnivals. Hence the name Carnival ware. McCluskey cites its dramatic comeback saying "there are now more Carnival collectors clubs in America than any other devoted to a particular glassware style." The labor movement, says McCluskey, played a significant role #in each of Wheeling's glass factories, but no where more so than Central Glass Company. The company was organized by John Osserling and four other Hobbs' workers who grew dissatisfied with the prevailing wage scale and benefits, pooled their money, and founded the company with $5,000 worth of capital.  Although Osserling went on to become corporate head of the multi-million dollar business, he never forgot the importance of those who worked for him and became the most respected glass company owner in the city. Central was in operation until 1939, making it the longest lived of the Wheeling glass houses. Near the rear of the museum, a store front generic to downtown Wheeling's Victorian era acts as a portal to its china collection. "Wheeling manufactured a lot of china," says McCluskey. "Like glass, it became a very significant industry over the years." The woodwork and display cases in the china room are from a turn-of-the-century jewelry store that closed in the early 1990s. The tin ceiling ("90% of all American tin ceilings were Wheeling-made," says McCluskey) is from an old building in the city that once housed a retail establishment. In the adjacent craftsman center, Albert Sickles, a third generation glass cutter, sits behind a glass enclosure and uses the late 19th century equipment he inherited from his father to carve intricate designs into blank, unadorned glass. The patterns he cuts into everything from enormous brandy snifters to tiny paperweights were set down by his fellow tradesmen "even before I was a twinkle in my father's eye," he says. In another section where visitors can watch and interact with the artisans, glass decorator Barbara Newton sits over a Christmas ornament she's already sandblasted to give it a frosted look that lends itself to finer, more-detailed work. She painstakingly creates wintry landscapes in acrylics with the end of a long brush. Newton, a talented designer/artist, learned her trade working for Brooks Glass in nearby Wellsburg. Since starting a series of holiday ornaments designed around "The Twelve Days of Christmas," Newton has developed a large following.  Glass maker Ron Lancaster wears a headset/microphone apparatus in the glass blowing workshop to broadcast over speakers his explanation of the process that turns molten glass into a myriad of artifacts. The audio aid is necessary to overcome the roar from the ovens heated to 2100o F and kept that way seven days a week. One of four professional glass blowers who take turns educating the public in the demonstration area, Lancaster not only explains the glass blowing process from beginning to end, but also shows how each phase is completed in dramatic step-by-step fashion. Nearby, a display case addresses the accomplishments of Wheeling's Island Mold and Machine Shop, the largest union mold shop in the country. Operated continuously by four generations of the Weishar family, the company has produced glass molds for scores of glass houses, businesses like Wal-Mart and national institutions like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Smithsonian. Besides showing the multitude of mold styles, shapes, sizes, and patterns, the display includes a bit of detailed caprice in the form of a 1940s work table, so intricately replicated it includes an ash tray full of Lucky Strike cigarette butts, Joseph Weishar's favored brand. The upper level of the 1992 Carriage House Glass building functions as a retail shop that offers for sale the largest variety of West Virginia-produced glass sold anywhere, ranging in price from a 65 cent bag of marbles from Marble King in Paden City to a luxurious cameo art glass piece by Pilgrim that lists at $1,500. "West Virginia still produces more decorative glass products than any other state in the union," says Barbara Palmer, an Oglebay spokesperson who played a significant role in finding the glass items marketed in the retail store. The wares of more than #30 of the state's glass companies and individual artisans are included in the shop inventory. The range of companies represented is quite broad and includes everything from Fenton of Williamstown, one of the largest glass producers in the country, to Gibson Glass, a smaller cottage glass company in Milton. "The Carriage House Glass building often comes as a surprise," says Palmer, "because it reveals that the West Virginia glass industry is alive and kicking." She could conceivably add the word "versatile" as well. Carriage House Glass is open daily, although the hours of operation vary according to the season. A small admission fee is charged to tour the glass museum. An annual American Heritage Glass and Craft Festival is featured the last weekend of July and the first weekend of August at Oglebay. During the festival, more than 100 artisans display and sell their wares outdoors in a beautiful setting in the resort/park. Oglebay is operated by the Wheeling Park Commission. For further information, phone (800) 624-6988. David Zuchowski is a freelance writer who recently wrote the popular story The Golden Grimes Apple which appeared in the September 1998 issue of Wonderful West Virginia magazine.
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