The
Corning Museum of Glass will celebrate the 100th birthday of Pyrex, a heat-resistant glass developed at Corning Glass Works, by devoting the 54th Annual Glass Seminar to
"Pyrex and Material Culture." Speakers include academic researchers on material life, domestic life, the history of architecture and space, and the history of food, along with designers and marketers from Corning, Inc., as well as antique dealers and collectors.
Reggie Blaszczyk, professor of Business History and Leadership Chair in the History of Business and Society at the University of Leeds, will give the keynote address on the history of Pyrex, drawing on research for her book,
Imagining Consumers: Design and Innovation from Wedgwood to Corning (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000).
Imagining Consumers was the first book to examine the innovation process behind Pyrex, digging deep into the archives to explain how chemists, physicists, and home economists developed a household glass that didn't break. The book received the 2001 Hagley Prize for the Best Book in Business History.
Learn more about the meeting at the
Seminar website; the full program is
here.
Readers can also learn much more about Pyrex at the Museum's online exhibit,
"Pyrex Potluck."
