Glassmaking, America's First Industry

The Corning Museum of Glass has the largest and most comprehensive public collection of American glass in existence, with more than 20,000 pieces ranging in date from the mid-eighteenth century to the present day. Unlike cabinetmaking and silversmithing, glassmaking did not prosper in the first two centuries of American settlement, primarily because glassmaking required three types of knowledge and skill: the ability to construct a furnace that could maintain a temperature of at least 2,300 degrees; knowledge of glass recipes; and proficiency in glassblowing; capabilities rarely found in a single person. Sand and other raw ingredients, ceramic pots for melting these materials, and wood for firing the furnace were additional necessities that were easier to obtain. Because the east coast of America was heavily forested, the colony's London financiers were prompted to erect a glasshouse at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1608. The glasshouse failed twice and was then abandoned. Although no description of the glass survives, we know that samples were sent back to London.