Pittsburgh Glass

Pittsburgh Glass. Three Rivers Heritage Trail. The glass industry in Pittsburgh evolved from small factories making the earliest windowpanes and hand-blown bottles into large mechanized plants using sophisticated technology. More glass was made in Pittsburgh than any other area in the United States.

In 1797, James O'Hara and Isaac Craig opened the first Pittsburgh glass manufactory on the South Side to serve a profitable market in the Ohio River Valley. By the 1870s the city had 46 glassworks and employed nearly 6000 people, third only to the iron and steel industry in productivity and employment.

Glass in the expanding new nation was needed for windows, mirrors, containers, flasks, lanterns, and bottles and jars for medicine, spirits, table ware, and countless other uses. The essential materials for glass manufacturing, fuel, silica, and potash, were plentiful in Pittsburgh, as was the skill of laborers and business enterprise.

The South Side was the home of many successful glass factories, including companies owned by Ihmsen, McKee, and Evans. PPG Industries, a leading global manufacturer of glass, began here in 1883. Pittsburgh glass was famous for its variety, ranging from utilitarian industrial products and to highly artistic cut glass and beautiful free-blown and colored glassware in many shapes. Today fine Pittsburgh glass is highly prized by collectors.

(captions) , Pressed "Lacy" Glass table ware, 1830-1840 , Free-blown non-lead glass wares, 1800-1825 , The interior of a glass factory in 1887 , Thomas Evans Glass Factory was near this site , Containers for whiskey, beer, condiments, medicines and other products were made in Pittsburgh