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The next morning we headed out for a pretty long drive to beautiful Jersey City, where our next campground was to see New York City.  We knew nothing about the route and as noon approached I noticed a sign on the freeway for the Corning Glass Museum.  Lori and I talked about a stop for lunch and maybe see some Pyrex bowls that Corning makes for about 2 seconds that we had to make the decision before the exit.  Obviously we decided to stop, so I cut across 2 lanes of the freeway and crossed the white lines of the exit to make it. The museum is only a block off the freeway with plenty of free parking even for RVs.  We had a quick lunch in the camper and headed in thinking we would see how glass measuring cups were made.

The Corning Museum of Glass is one of those treasures you find along the way that you had no idea existed.  I thought we would maybe see the history of windows and get back on the road.  We spent several hours here and would come back if the opportunity comes up.  

The museum truly is purely about glass in all forms and through out history, including a great art gallery and massive shop.  The images above and below are of a special exhibit that had at the time that was all about using glass to the study of botany.  Since plants from far off places would wilt and die, it has been a long standing tradition to have artisans make exact copies of plants right down to the roots.  the details were incredible.

Here is an example of the glass in the art gallery.  This ball is about 3 feet tall.

Glass through history is the biggest part of the museum.  There was glass items there dating back to 3500 BC.

There is a section of the museum that does cover the making and industrial uses of glass, like the lens next to Jake for lighthouses.

This shows how plate glass for windows used to be make until the 20th century.  They would blow a large bubble then spin it until it flattened out and cooled so it could be cut into sheets.

There is also a section where the give demonstrations of artisans making decorative vases, etc.  after making a pretty piece, they would just toss it in a tub of water and shatter it, not good enough to sell I guess.  Behind the demo area is a large craftsmen's shop with many furnaces that the Corning glass craftsmen worked to make crystal items and what ever for sale under the corning name.  I guess they make more the just Pyrex.

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