New Bedford Guide Your Guide to New Bedford and South Coast, MA
By Laura Coffin
The New Bedford Museum of Glass has reinstalled its extensive display of American historical glass at New Bedford City Hall after a two month hiatus. The exhibit was temporarily closed during the City’s lead paint abatement program earlier this year. More than 500 examples of glass relating to American political history, the largest public display of its kind in the country, are now back on view along the ground floor corridors of the City Hall building. New Bedford City Hall is located at 133 William St., and the public is encouraged to take advantage of this free exhibit, accessible Monday through Friday, from 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM.
Much of the historical glass on view comes from a 1,500 piece collection donated to the glass museum by the late Mrs. Warren P. Tingley of Florida. It took Mrs. Tingley more than three decades to assemble the collection, which is housed in display cases donated by local glass authorities William Pitt and the late Louis O. St. Aubin, Jr. Major subject categories cover U.S. Centennial and Bicentennial glass, political campaign glass and glass commemorating significant American historical events and individuals. Among the highlights are four exquisitely molded portrait plates depicting the presidential and vice presidential candidates of the 1884 election. Grover Cleveland and his running mate Thomas A. Hendricks proved victorious, despite a nation-wide scandal alleging that Cleveland had an illegitimate son. Another fascinating piece is a Midwestern tray depicting the likeness of Nellie Bly, the pen name used by investigative reporter Elizabeth Cochrane. In 1889, Cochrane sought to beat the fictitious travel record described by author Jules Vern in his 1873 novel “Around the World in 80 Days.” Cochrane departed from New York City on November 14, 1889, traveled by boat to England and then across the Mediterranean to Egypt. From there she proceeded to Singapore, China, Japan and San Francisco, sending periodic travel dispatches back to her newspaper, and finally reached New York by train from the West Coast to complete her trip in exactly 72 days, six hours and eleven minutes.
Included in the City Hall exhibit is a sampling of glass by New Bedford’s own Mt. Washington and Pairpoint glass companies. Two egg-shaped novelty saltshakers are embossed “Columbian Exhibition 1893.” Other Mt. Washington examples feature designs by English author and illustrator Kate Greenaway. And finally, a stark contrast to the Nellie Bly tray mentioned in the preceding paragraph is presented by the New Bedford glass vase depicting a severe looking woman, skirt hiked about her knees, who strides forward carrying an American Flag. The vase was intended as an unflattering allusion to the woman’s suffrage movement of the 1880s. The movement gained momentum in the late 19th century but did not achieve its goal of securing women the right to vote in national elections until 1920, when Congress passed the 19th Amendment to the Constitution.
The historical glass display at City Hall represents only a small fraction of the glass museum’s permanent collection, which is housed just a short drive from downtown New Bedford at 61 Wamsutta St. Glass displayed in the museum’s new facility, which it shares with the New Bedford Antiques Center, ranges widely from ancient Roman treasures to work by today’s best-known studio glass artists. For more information about the City Hall display or the museum’s new gallery space on Wamsutta St., please visit the museum’s website at www.nbmog.org or call (508) 984-1666. Below is a sample of items on display.
Women’s Suffrage Vase
Mt. Washington Glass Company
New Bedford, MA, c. 1885; height 5 7/8”
Collection of The New Bedford Museum of Glass
Grover Cleveland Plate
Gillinder & Sons
Philadelphia, PA, 1884; diameter 11 ½”
Collection of The New Bedford Museum of Glass
Gift of Mrs. Warren P. Tingley
Nellie Bly Tray
Thompson Glass Co, Ltd.
Pittsburgh, PA, 1890; length 12 ¾”
Collection of The New Bedford Museum of Glass
Gift of Mrs. Warren P. Tingley
Lincoln Statuette
Gillinder & Sons
Philadelphia, PA, 1876; height 6”
Collection of The New Bedford Museum of Glass
Gift of Mrs. Warren P. Tingley
Patriotic Tumbler
Midwestern, c. 1940; height 5”
Collection of The New Bedford Museum of Glass
Gift of Mrs. Warren P. Tingley
