Glass Museum a colorful piece of history

Sunlight streams through the windows of The Glass Museum in Dunkirk, shining on a colorful part of Jay County history.

The museum, located at 309 S. Franklin St. in the state’s self-proclaimed glass capital, is filled with approximately 5,500 pieces of glass from 115 factories from around the world, including local glass factories, Indiana Glass Company and Saint-Gobain Containers.

“For most people in town (the museum) is part of their heritage,” said museum curator Mary Newsome.

“They or their family have worked at one of the (glass) factories ... Now it’s even more important because (glass production at Indiana Glass has stopped). We need to preserve the history,” added Newsome, a former Indiana Glass employee.

Newsome, a Dunkirk resident, said most of her time at the museum is spent cleaning and rearranging the glass bowls, decanters, vases and mugs and variety items that fill the display cases and cover the walls in the museum.

Newsome has been curator since 1997, when former curator Kenneth Webster died at age 88. Webster had been curator of the museum since 1977, soon after the museum was completed.

“He had a soft spot in his heart for the glass industry,” Dunkirk Public Library board president Roy Sneed said about Webster. “He deserves some credit for the start of the museum.”

Sneed said after Webster retired, he was at the museum five to six days a week.

“He brought in glass (pieces) and donations without pay,” Sneed said about Webster’s volunteer work for the museum. “It was a work of pride from his heart.”

“He would buy a piece (of glass) with his money or the museum’s money, when there was some, and then he would dedicate it to the museum. He also encouraged (others) to bring things in,” Sneed added.

“He wasn’t above coercing someone (into donating a piece.) He was such a likable fellow. It was hard to say no to him,” Sneed remembered about Webster.

“It’s a nice museum. (A place) the whole community should be proud of,” Sneed said. “Kenny would be very happy with the museum today. It’s a memorial to the glass industry and the town itself.”

In 1968, Indiana Glass designer Thomas Connally started creating a new line of glass called Greenwich Flint-Craft.

Today, approximately 20 pieces of this line are housed at the museum, just minutes away from where Connally designed the line and the pieces were produced.

“I have fond memories,” the Muncie resident said about his 23 years at the Dunkirk factory. “To create something that appealed to the consumer was gratifying,” he added.

The 350 pieces in the line are sought today by collectors from “coast to coast,” Connally said.

“They are hot collector items,” Connally said. “Its a diverse line with some really great pieces of work.”

The richly colored and uniquely shaped vases, bowls and decanters in Connally’s line are completely mouth blown and hand crafted from Indiana Glass. There are 70 different items included in the line, produced in colors, orange, blue, lime, lemon and burnt honey.

Many items such as Connally’s pieces are identified at the museum. Tagged with the name of the designer and the kind of glass or line the piece belongs to. Most items in the museum have been donated or loaned by factories or private owners. The building and its contents are owned by the library and ran by the library board.

The museum was built in 1976. Its construction was prompted by efforts from the Dunkirk Lions Club, the city, the local glass factories and the Dunkirk Public Library. The library was added to the museum in 1987.

The museum was designed by former Indiana Glass designer and library board president Arthur Harshman.

It is open from May 1 to October 31, on Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday by appointment.

Guided group tours are available year round by appointment, Newsome said. Visitors are able to walk though the museum during library hours of Monday and Thursday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

“People (who visit the museum) always say that there is more here than they expected,” Newsome said.

Glass-making started in Dunkirk in the late 1880s after productive natural gas wells were discovered in the area during that time.

More than 100 glass factories were built within a 50-mile radius of Jay County, including seven in Dunkirk.

But by 1900 the supply of gas was dwindling and the supply ran out, causing factory after factory to close or move away, according to a brochure from the museum.

Indiana Glass and Hart Glass, which is today Saint-Gobain, stayed in business by burning coal.

Both factories made glass by hand pressing, blowing and painting until 1986, when both factories turned to machine operating glass production, according to the brochure.[[In-content Ad]]