EDITOR ERIC C. RODENBERG OF ANTIQUES WEEK INTERVIEWS FAITH CORRIGAN (8/9/10)

Author and journalist Faith Corrigan is cognizant of the fact that she is not writing best sellers. Her trilogy of books: Glass of Patriotism and Progress, Glass of Faith and Beauty and the soon to be released Glass of Fashion and Style ‘are not being written for today but 2050’ she says. Corrigan’s books are not price guides. And although much of the glassware she writes about dates back 60 to 100 years Corrigan believes the glass tells the story of our nation. And that’s the intent of her writing, a part of American social history that is woefully overlooked……
‘I want to introduce this glass to a new generation. We now have a generation growing up in a country where we no long make anything. A lot of people do not realize how important these things are.’
Advertising was a new profession in the late 19th century but the United States Glass Co. found it to be a lucrative source of sales for its States Series issues. During those earlier times pickle dishes, serving bowls and dinner plates were favored premiums accompanying sales for furniture and department stores. The new concept of ‘installment buying’ was advocated by such sales appeals as ‘A Little at a Time’ on a pickle dish. ‘You furnish the Girl and We furnish the House’ was another encouraging message sent on glassware. The premiums often became treasured heirlooms for new families of the early 20th Century. Now that series of glass—comprised of 35 states—is difficult to find and its history nearly forgotten by subsequent generations
 She writes and speaks of the days when glass houses were found  up and down the rivers through Pittsburgh and into West Virginia.Corrigan’s books recall the evolution of Depression glass, the Early American Pattern glass with religious symbol and patriotic themes (‘terribly neglected’) or the time honored traditional prayers decorating children’s plates of the Baby Boom era (‘nearly forgotten’) the gas station giveaways, the death of white milk glass in the early 1960s right up to Corning Ware of the 1970s, even ashtrays’ (‘You had to have an ashtray in the 1950s. Everyone smoked and we were told it kept our weight down).  
Corrigan became interested in glassware while working for the New York Times in the 1950s what was then called The Women’s Pages. Later she was a reporter for the Cleveland Plain Dealer covering many civil right issues and putting together an investigative series that impacted the new Medicare law in the 1960s.  After Corrigan retired as a college teacher of English at 83 she looked for something to pass on to others, her knowledge of glass and the glass industry.

"Glass of Faith and Beauty" by Faith Corrigan   A Spiritual Guide to Great American Antique Glass Part One of BREAD. GLASS AND HISTORY A New Approach to Patttern Glass, its Design and Social Background   Learn More/Order

Also coming soon...

"Glass of Fashion and Style"