Corning Museum of Glass

 A week or so after we returned, we got a visit from my sister and her husband. They drove out from NJ for a brief visit and we took them up to Corning to visit the Museum of Glass.  We arrived just in time to hustle over to the new theater and watch a glass blowing demonstration.

Afterward, we walked around looking at the various exhibits including one of glass sea creatures by Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka. They created these delicate pieces in the 1800s to show the world some of the amazing things found in the ocean. Specimens in glass jars just didn't do the trick, they thought, so they did some fantastitc, colorful work.

 Many of their pieces had been sitting in boxes in back rooms of various museums before being acquired by the Corning Museum of Glass. Many of them were in pretty rough shape with even the least damaged requiring extensive cleaning.

This was a temporary exhibit, so we were lucky to get to view it.

One of my favorite--and permanent--displays is the scale model of one of the early glass furnaces built in Corning. The detail is amazing.

We also listened to a talk about fiber optics that was fascinating.

Ruthann and Al were impressed by the Museum and the Pennsylvania Welcome Center on Route 15 as we came back home.