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The West Virginia Museum of American Glass
by Pam Mills
 In 2010, www.cga presented a glass display case to the West Virginia
Museum of American Glass in Weston, WV. Following our convention in
Greenville Mike and I, together with Ed and Virginia Perva, set off
on a road trip heading east. On the route we were determined to make
one very important stop. Our stop, of course, was to the glass
museum so that we could see our showcase. Our accommodation and
subsequent tour of the museum was hosted by Tom Felt, the Museum's
archivist, and Bob O'Grady. Tom and Bob are doing a wonderful job of
photographing and cataloguing the museum's collection. They love
glass and have an extensive personal collection of Heisey in a
variety of colours.
The museum has a large collection of all kinds of American Glass
including an eye catching window display of a Blenko Man.
As we know many manufacturers and glass museums are closing. The team
at this museum are trying to gather and preserve collections and
records for future generations before they are lost forever. Earlier
in our trip we visited the Degenhart Museum in Cambridge, Ohio only
to find out that it was closing down and we were only able to see a
small amount of the glass. This was very sad news but we were
extremely pleased to learn that a lot of the museum's exhibits were
going to be sent to the West Virginia museum.
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Click
Here to view the article from the July,
2010 - Vol. VIII, No. 2
issue of "All About
Glass" - "The Voice of the Glass Collecting
Community," published by the West Virginia
Museum of American Glass
Ltd.
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Click Here
to read the letter from
the Museum thanking www.cga
for its
donation.
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 Although
the museum already had some carnival glass, before they received our
showcase, it was scattered around the building in its relevant
manufacturers' cases along with their other non carnival products.
Our case is unique in that it is dedicated purely to Carnival Glass,
irrespective of manufacturer, with a plaque stating that it was
donated by www.cga.
Additionally, our club member Ed Perva donated his magnificent tumbler
collection and a showcase to the museum. However, as they did not
have a great variety of glass to put into "our" case quite a few of
his tumblers were placed in the www.cga case. A photograph of Ed and
an article mentioning our showcase appeared in the museum's magazine
"All about Glass".
The article read: Thanks to the generosity of Ed and Virginia Perva,
who donated a collection of close to 500 carnival glass tumblers and
a small display case, and the Woodsland World Wide Carnival Glass
Association, who donated the money to purchase one of our larger
standard showcases, MAGWV now has a major carnival display as its
newest attraction.
As you can see in the photo of our showcase below they have
subsequently received donations of more carnival glass, mainly
marigold, which has enlarged the display.
However, that brings me to my next point, our showcase really could do
with a greater variety of colours and items so that the glass can be
re-arranged to display the glass at its very best. The Board of
Director's of www.cga voted to send a selection of our
commemoratives to the museum as a further donation from the club. If
anybody would like to make a donation of glass to the museum please
contact me and I will give you the information on sending it to
them.
This is a wonderful museum and if you are ever in Weston it is
certainly worth a visit. Just be warned that if you let them know
that you are a carnival glass collector you may well be asked to
look at some new pieces that have been donated and identify them -
as I discovered on our visit.
The future of the museum looks to be in good hands and I am confident
the whole team will ensure that our beloved Carnival Glass will be
well represented for future generations to see and admire.
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