Thank you for your question! You might be interested in the following posts on The Corning Museum of Glass blog:
- "Q&A with Rakow Research Grant recipient Charlotte Holzer," who researches the history and conservation of handmade glass fibers (January 19,2017).
- "Curiosity highly gratified: Six weird and wonderful things to see at an itinerant glassworker’s show," including the spinning of glass thread (September 15, 2017).
Additional Online Resources
We have a number of resources that have been digitized and are available online, including:
- A two-sided cabinet card published by the Libbey Glass Company with information on Princess Eulalia's glass dress (CGML 134150).
- LG 1. Libbey Glass Company, Glass dress for 1893 World’s Fair, which includes, among other items, a photograph of a mannequin wearing a dress made of spun glass cloth; Georgia Cayvan ;in the Libbey-made glass gown; and a cabinet card featuring Princess Eulalia of Spain wearing the spun-glass dress made by Libbey Glass Company (CGML 164620).
- Libbey Glass Company World’s Fair 1893, a guidebook to the Libbey exhibit, including information on the process of spinning, weaving and braiding glass fiber (CGML 28234).
- Field, Kate. The Drama of Glass. [Toledo, Ohio]: The Libbey Glass Co., [189?]. See "Epilogue: The Actress and the Infanta (CGML 19337).
- Broadside advertising a spun glass bonnet, ca. 1883-1900 (CGML 131369).
- Advertising card for Madam J. Rieth’s troupe of American and Bohemian glass blowers, ca. 1880-1900, featuring a "beautiful glass dress and shawl -- only ones ever made -- flexible as silk (CGML 45697)
- Broadside advertising London glass blower Mr. Finn's fancy glass working and spinning exhibition at Augusta's United States Hotel, with reference to Queen Victoria's wedding garment, partially made of spun glass (CGML 164968).
Additional Resources
The Rakow Research Library has a number of additional resources that could assist you in your research (links are to Library catalog records unless otherwise noted):
- Bancroft, Hubert Howe. The Book of the Fair; An Historical and Descriptive Presentation of the World’s Science, Art, and Industry, as Viewed through the Columbian Exposition at Chicago in 1893 ... Chicago and San Francisco: The Bancroft Company, 1895. Note: Includes glass fiber dress.
- "Cloth Made of Glass." Hearth and Home (Dec. 21, 1872): 1.
- Fauster, Carl U. "Out of the Past: Glass Dress for the Spanish Princess." The Hobstar 28, no. 6 (March 2006): 4664 - 4670, ill.
- “From the Archives.” All About Glass 7, no. 1 (Apr. 2009): 20-21. Note: Glass dress ordered by Princess Eulalia, and made by Libbey Glass Co., 1893; includes description of the making process.
- “Glass Dress and Factory Materials Make Interesting Glassware Display.” Cambridge Crystal Ball, no. 207 (July 1990): 1+, ill. Note: Reprinted article from China, Glass & Lamps, Sept. 12, 1927, concerning spun glass dress owned and exhibited by Cambridge Glass Co.
- “A Glass Robe.” Crockery and Glass Journal (Nov. 10, 1879): 28.
- Lole, Peter. “A Wedding Dress.” The Glass Cone, no. 40 (Autumn 1995): 2. Note: Fiberglass wedding dress of 1943 (now in Turner Museum of Glass) made by Pettigrew & Stephens, Glasgow.
- "Some Modern Uses of Glass." The Decorator and Furnisher 29, no. 6 (1897): 183. https://www.jstor.org/stable/25585215.
- "Textile Glass." Scientific American 157, no. 1 (1937): 25. https://www.jstor.org/stable/24997432.
Borrowing Library Materials
If you wish to borrow copies of library items, please contact your local library. The Rakow Research Library will lend designated books from its collection and will send copies of articles requested by other libraries. Your library can request items through the OCLC WorldShare Interlibrary Loan (ILL) system or by direct request through email at ill@cmog.org. For more information, please see our ILL Policies and Procedures.
Please do not hesitate to contact us in the future with your glass-related questions!
