What Is Indiana Glass?

Origins

• Although glassware from other regions and countries can compete in richness and ingenuity of design, Indiana glass obtained great popularity among a growing sector of early 20th century Americans. First, because of its heat source and available chemicals, the glass was very inexpensive. Glassware was therefore affordable to the rapidly-growing, highly-mobile workforce created by the Industrial Revolution. The time to render local materials, such as clay and wood, into household utensils and ornaments was replaced by the cash in a factory worker's pockets and the ability to purchase pretty housewares made by someone else.

Revolutionary Characteristics

• Domestic glass production methods were similar to those for producing furniture. The Industrial Revolution brought to the general public the association of intricacy of design with wealth and class status, offering the opportunity to lessen slightly the gap between the woman who sewed the lacy petticoat and the lady who wore it. Machine-made glassware and other household objects had consistent shapes, sizes and colors, ornamented with elaborate designs reflecting those of fine handcrafts. Furthermore, machines made possible mass production, which allowed the accumulation of similar pieces and permitted replacement of those broken or lost. Designs might be pressed rather than carved, infuriating and threatening experienced artisans. To their new owners, however, such distinctions were minor in the face of owning nice things. The major producers of Indiana glassware -- Dugan, Northwood, Fenton, Westmoreland, Imperial and the Indiana Glass Company -- all began from an industrial rather than handcraft basis. Success depended upon high-volume manufacturing rather than the creation of valuable rarities.

Indiana's First Contributions

• Early Indiana glassware manufacturers distinguished themselves from competitors in their enthusiastic embrace of iridescence as a desirable quality in domestic glassware. The earliest iridescent Indiana glassware was produced by painting chemical salts on molten glass. This novelty item, known in the trade as Goofus glass, acquired another name from commercial customers, who used it as a giveaway: carnival glass. Very early carnival glass designs emphasized flash over subtlety.

Indiana's Achievement

• Spraying, rather than hand-painting, molten glass with chemical salts, was a logical path for mass production to follow and led to the creation of what is now known by collectors as Indiana carnival glass. Techniques used in the manufacture of Louis Comfort Tiffany glass were copied by Indiana manufacturers, among them Fenton, Dugan and Northwood, with extensive popular response. Factory products, looked down upon by the wealthy, offered opportunities, no matter how small, for the middle class to enjoy the creature comforts formerly excluded to them in American society.

Indiana Glass Today

• Although carnival glass began to experience decline as early as the 1920s, Indiana manufacturers continued to produce a wide variety of glassware items into the 1960s and 1970s. Today, the Indiana Glass Trail, a state tourism project, provides a history of the industry along with opportunities to see the work of modern Indiana glass artisans and innovators.