The Historical Glass Museum is a museum of glassmaking. It is located at 1157 North Orange St. in Redlands, California. [1]
The Historical Glass Museum was established in 1977 when the Historical Glass Museum Foundation purchased an Edwardian home, built in 1903 by Jerome Seymour, a woodworker and architect from West Virginia, to house the future museum's collection, amassed by Dixie and Doc Huckabee. [1] The Foundation encouraged other collectors to donate to the Huckabees' collection, and the museum opened to the public in 1985. The collection currently comprises 6,000 pieces of glassware, [2] making it the largest collection of American-made glass west of the Rocky Mountains. [1]
The Historical Glass Museum collection is organized by type, from Victorian Art Glass (1885-1900) and Early American Pattern Glass (1850-1920) to Depression Glass (1922-1944) and American Elegant Glass (1925-1955). The museum contains blown glass, molded glass, and machine-made glass. Some pieces are manganese glass, some are milk glass, and others are of different colors and specificities. Perfume bottles from Pearl Cogen make up a part of the collection. [3] There are also 300 vinegar cruets donated by Harriet Thomason. [4] The oldest piece in the entire collection is a bottle made in 1820. [1]