Carpe Diem: Gladys D. Weinberg's Exploration of Glass Workshops

Gladys Weinberg's first publication on glass, in the American Journal of Archaeology for 1940, reveals the attitudes that characterize her scholarship: she was a Classical archaeologist with a broad chronological range, an interest in production processes, and an innovative appreciation for the contributions that science can make to archaeological studies. I will survey her contributions to glass studies, both as an archaeologist and as a connoisseur. Her connection to Corning (and therefore Missouri's connection) began in 1959 when she persuaded the then director of The Corning Museum of Glass, Thomas Buechner, to underwrite a search for a glass factory on the south coast of Crete, continued with the much larger USAID-funded project at Jalame, and beyond that when her student Sidney Goldstein became Curator of Ancient Glass at The Corning Museum of Glass. Connoisseurship grew from her curiosity and appreciation of production technology and brought a focus not only on luxury glass but on modern art glass. Her work enhanced the reputations of both the University of Missouri and The Corning Museum of Glass.
Speaker: Kathleen Slane, Professor Emerita of Art and Archaeology, University of Missouri-Columbia (United States)