Colonial Glassmakers

During the first hundred years of colonial America, several attempts were made to establish glass factories. The London Company sent eight skilled Dutch and Polish glassblowers to Virginia. Established in 1608, the Jamestown Glasshouse failed within one year due to famine. In 1621, another attempt was made by Captain William Norton, but by 1624, Indian attacks and scarcity of workers had thwarted his efforts.

In 1639, Southwick, Concklin, and Holmes founded a glassworks in Salem, Massachusetts. Material shortages caused it to fail. In an area that is now Wall Street, Johannes Smeedes founded a glassworks in New Amsterdam.   He successfully operated several factories in the area during the 1650s. The first profitable American glassworks, South Jersey Glass, was established by German colonist Caspar Wistar. His skilled tradesmen and quality materials produced bottles, bowls, pitchers, vases and drinking glasses.

Colonial glassmakers created two kinds of glass; flint glass and soda-lime glass. Clear flint glass was expensive due to the extra work required to remove the impurities from the mixture. Soda-lime glass was made from a mixture of beach sand, wood and seaweed ash, crushed oyster shells and limestone. It was dark in color and inexpensive to make. Regardless of which type of glass they were making, the mixtures were heated in a furnace. Then the molten mixture was either blown into shape using a blowpipe, or it was blown into a shaped mold.

The Townshend Acts initiated British taxes on glass and other products, prompting colonists to protest against unfair taxation. The onset of the American Revolution made a significant impact on the colonial glassmaking industry.









- - - - - - - - - -
© Don Johnston Incorporated
For use with Protocol in Accommodations for Reading (PAR) by DeCoste & Wilson
donjohnston.com/par