While New Jersey’s colonial and revolutionary history is the subject of much study and celebration, other aspects of the state’s story too often fly under the radar. While not as well-known as Washington’s campaigns or the Hamilton-Burr duel, South Jersey’s glassmaking industry served as the backbone of the area’s economy for centuries, a legacy that Glassboro’s own Heritage Glass Museum is dedicated to commemorating.

Located on High Street, the museum opens its doors each Saturday from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. with free admission to view its collection. Sporting artifacts hailing from all aspects of the state’s glassmaking heritage, the museum features industrial equipment from different periods in the history of glass manufacturing, and a broad collection of glass products themselves.

Bottles and containers, many centuries-old, line the walls forming a wide-reaching look at the products born from South Jersey’s glass history. From plain bottles born from mass production to intricate specialty bottles, formed in shapes ranging from pineapples to presidents, the collection exhibits a wide look at what area bottle makers were (and still are) capable of.

“Some of the favorite pieces are the whimsies,” said Heritage Glass Museum Board of Trustees member Elizabeth Wilk, directing to a case in the center of the museum. “When the working day was done, and the workers still had a little bit of time, they would make these just for fun, and they would often be presents or gifts to loved ones.”

Ranging from custom paperweights to intricate statuettes, the glass “whimsies” proved some of the most eye-catching items in the collection. A look into the human side of the art of glassmaking, the whimsies stand as beacons of creativity and color in a collection that may seem at first glance to be largely industrial in nature.

Going back as far as the 1700s, glassmaking stood as an industry of great importance for the South Jersey area.

“There was an abundance of natural resources present,” said Wilk, explaining the factors from which the industry was born. “There was quarry sand, good sand for glassmaking, lots and lots of trees to fuel the furnaces so you could melt the glass, and you also had a series of rivers to get your product to the main market, which in this area was Philadelphia.”

From this set of natural circumstances, a thriving glass industry sprung up in the area, centered on harnessing the natural resources available from South Jersey’s geography to fuel the young nation’s growing need for glass, and while the industry grew to meet that demand, workers began to flock to the area to meet the industry’s demand for labor.

“Germans had the image of being very hard workers, very skilled workers, so glassblowers would have fit into that, and people respected that,” said volunteer and former Rowan sociology professor Jim Oriolo.

The glass industry drew both American itinerant workers and skilled immigrants to the region, fueling the growth of many South Jersey communities into the 1900s.

“There was a shift to lighter materials, especially when plastic started to be used,” said Wilk on why the industry fell into decline. “For cost and safety reasons, there was a shift to plastic in the late twentieth century.”

While Glassboro’s glassworks are no longer, South Jersey continues a glassmaking tradition elsewhere in the region. The Vineland area continues to be a center of glass manufacturing into the modern day, while Salem County College offers the nation’s only scientific glass technology degree program. Today, the Heritage Glass Museum stands proud as a tribute to that same glass-making legacy from which Glassboro itself was born.

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