Sandwich Glass Museum brings glass making to life

Inside the Sandwich Glass Museum, glass blower Lauren Underwood made a glass as visitors watched, feet away from the red hot furnace. As she shaped blobs of hot glass, she enthusiastically explained the process and compared it to what 19th glass blowers did in the Boston and Sandwich Glass Factory. The audience exclaimed and applauded heartily.

“If you watch glass blowing anywhere, it’s fascinating and beautiful, but what’s special here is that we have a story to tell about the people and industry of the town,” said museum executive director Kathleen Campbell. “People associate Sandwich with glass, but they don’t know much about it.”

That changes after a visit. Since the museum doubled in size and added interactive elements in 2005, it has a new dynamism and creativity.

“We hear people say constantly that the museum is nothing like they remembered it,” Campbell said. “People say it’s engaging and fun, which is a pretty glowing testimonial for a museum that houses a bunch of old glass.”

In fact, this “old glass” collection is filled with remarkably beautiful kerosene lamps, candlesticks, perfume bottles, lampshades, paperweights, vases and all manner of tableware and serving pieces produced in Sandwich from 1825 to 1890. Sandwich, the oldest town on Cape Cod, was to glass what Lowell was to cotton. The town grew up around The Boston and Sandwich Glass Company. It was a leading producer of American blown, pressed, engraved, threaded and decorated glass, until competition from glass factories in the Midwest and a national glass workers strike resulted in its 1888 closing. Former employees attempted unsuccessfully to create smaller glass companies, but the Sandwich glass industry disappeared by 1920.

But the legacy remains. The museum, owned by the Sandwich Historical Society, displays 5,000 pieces of glass chronologically with descriptive text, which helps visitors understand the progression in technique and technology. The pieces are radiant in ruby, peacock blue, lime green and other shades. Etchings and cuttings add exquisite detail. Glass fruits and flowers are embedded in paperweights, and images of birds and animals are painted on glass lampshades.

“We want people to see that glass is a fascinating medium,” Campbell said. “While we use it every day, it also can be a piece of art.”

To that end, the museum displays and sells the work of contemporary glass artists and houses rotating exhibits. Currently, “A Splash of Glass,” by Rhode Island glass blower Chris Belleau, has dazzling colorful glass flowers, vases, fish and cresting waves. “Kitchen Dreams” by Berkshire glass maker Ricky Bernstein, features large 3-D wall collages that tell humorous stories of 1950s domestic life in a pop art and cartoon style.

But the heart of the museum is 19th century glass and the interactive exhibits that give the objects a context in daily life.

In the Hannah Rebecca Burgess Dining Room, the hostess, a remarkable Sandwich woman who captained a sailing ship, welcomes her guests. The items light up as she describes the seven formal place settings, which include three delicate water and wine glasses in the Roman Key and Star pattern, as well as personal bowls for butter and salt.

“How clever,” remarked Marsha Molinaro, who was visiting from San Francisco. “It brought it all to life and made me enjoy the glass more.”

In another interactive space, the Levine Lighting Gallery, the beautiful kerosene lamps can be seen in the context of the evolution of artificial lighting. As the narrator speaks, the lamps light up, showing the progression from animal grease lamps to candlesticks, whale oil and camphene lamps, detailed colorful kerosene and gas lamps and finally the light bulb.

Surprisingly, children find much to interest them. There’s a multi-media show “Sandwich: The First Two Hundred Years,” and a diorama replicating the factory interior, enlivened with three stories told by company founder Deming Jarves, a skilled glass blower and a child apprentice. Kids can see glass toys, target balls (which marksmen threw in the air for shooting practice) and witch’s balls (believed to attract home-invading witches and keep them from harming inhabitants). Children can open drawers to find pieces of gold and other minerals used to create the glass colors.

On a recent visit, Preston Johnson, 9, excitedly called to his younger brother.

“Come see these amazing flowers,” said Johnson, who had his nose within sniffing range of the petals of Chris Belleau’s flowers. “They’re made of glass!”

Some adults shared his awe. Nancy Leary of Connecticut stopped before a set of ruby glass chalices and a large ruby glass decanter etched with vines laden with grapes.

“Whoa! Let’s have a wedding toast,” she said to her friend, Sarah Brown of Texas. Then added, “We’re imagining what we would want to take home.”

In fact, glass lovers do bring home glass, since the museum gift shop sells many reproductions, as well as contemporary glass. And this weekend, thousands of pieces of American and European glassware from the 18th century to today will be on sale at the Cape Cod Glass Show and Sale in Sandwich. Ticket proceeds benefit the museum.