Journal of Glass Studies

Journal of Glass Studies is an annual peer-reviewed publication focused on the history, technology, archaeology, conservation, and art history of glass. It is published by the Corning Museum of Glass and has served as a venue for scholarship connecting museum practice, scientific analysis, and archival research. Contributors have included historians, archaeologists, conservators, curators, and scientists associated with institutions, exhibitions, and laboratories worldwide.

History

The journal was founded in 1959 under the auspices of the Corning Museum of Glass and benefactors linked to industrial patrons such as Corning Incorporated, Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, Alcoa, Vanderbilt family, and collectors from regions including Venice, London, Paris, Prague, and Murano. Early editorial leadership drew on figures associated with Smithsonian Institution, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Victoria and Albert Museum, British Museum, and scholars connected to university programs at Harvard University, Yale University, University of Cambridge, University of Oxford, University of Jerusalem, University of Padua, and University College London. The journal documented research on archaeological finds from sites such as Pompeii, Herculaneum, Çatalhöyük, Nabataean Petra, and Aphrodisias and reported technical studies aligned with laboratories at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Max Planck Society, University of Tokyo, and École des Beaux-Arts. Over decades it intersected with exhibitions at institutions including Tate Modern, National Gallery of Art, Louvre, Hermitage Museum, Galleria degli Uffizi, and collaborations with conservation projects tied to UNESCO and the International Council of Museums.

Scope and content

The journal publishes monographic articles, technical reports, exhibition catalog essays, and conservation case studies addressing historical centers such as Murano glassmakers, Islamic workshops of Damascus, Roman workshops in Alexandria, Byzantine workshops in Constantinople, and Islamic contributions from Cairo and Samarkand. It covers scientific analysis methods used at institutions like Brookhaven National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, and university facilities at Imperial College London and Stanford University. Authors engage with archival material from collections at British Library, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Archivio di Stato di Venezia, Vatican Library, Getty Research Institute, and corporate archives of Waterford Crystal, Steuben Glass Works, Fostoria Glass Company, and Libbey Glass Company. The journal situates objects in cultural contexts involving patrons such as Medici family, Habsburgs, Ottoman Empire, Safavid Iran, and collectors associated with museums like Cooper Hewitt, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Brooklyn Museum, and Cleveland Museum of Art.

Editorial board and publisher

The editorial board has historically included curators and scientists from Corning Museum of Glass, scholars affiliated with Princeton University, Columbia University, University of Pennsylvania, and specialists connected to conservation institutes such as Getty Conservation Institute and Canadian Conservation Institute. Publishing is managed by the Corning Museum of Glass with editorial collaborations that have involved advisory members from Smithsonian Institution Libraries, American Alliance of Museums, Society of Antiquaries of London, and regional partners like Museo Correr and Fondazione Querini Stampalia. Guest editors have been drawn from departments at University of Chicago, Brown University, Dartmouth College, Rutgers University, University of California, Berkeley, and international partners including Leiden University, University of Heidelberg, University of Barcelona, and Kyoto University.

Publication and indexing

Issued annually, the journal is distributed through library networks and museum bookstores and is catalogued in bibliographic services maintained by organizations such as OCLC, Library of Congress, WorldCat, and indexing databases used by researchers at JSTOR, Scopus, Web of Science, and specialist bibliographies curated by International Committee for Conservation and ICOMOS. It is cited in monographs and catalogues raisonnés published by university presses including Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, Princeton University Press, Yale University Press, and exhibition catalogues from Metropolitan Museum of Art and Rijksmuseum. Libraries holding subscription copies range from national repositories like Bibliothèque nationale de France and Russian State Library to regional institutions such as New York Public Library and Boston Public Library.

Notable articles and impact

Notable contributions have included excavation reports linking glass manufacture to trade networks across the Mediterranean Sea, studies of chemical composition using techniques developed at Argonne National Laboratory and National Institute of Standards and Technology, conservation case studies applied in collaborations with Smithsonian Institution and Victoria and Albert Museum, and methodological papers adopted in training programs at Courtauld Institute of Art and Royal College of Art. Influential articles have illuminated production centers tied to the Roman Empire, medieval centers in Genoa, Renaissance workshops in Florence, and modern studio glass movements connected to figures associated with Harvey Littleton and Dominick Labino. The journal’s corpus has informed exhibition narratives at Corning Museum of Glass, contributed to provenance research for loans involving the Louvre and British Museum, and supported conservation interventions funded by philanthropic organizations such as Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and Guggenheim Foundation.

Category:Glass studies journals