Some years ago Paul Vickers Gardner left a bequest of money, memorabilia and glass for a Paul Vickers Gardner Glass Center(PVGGC) to Alfred University, or Alfred College. Not sure which. At a symposium several years ago we went to Alfred to see what was there. A treasure trove. Lots of paper work and they with the best of intentions didn’t have the knowledge or resources to catalogue it. Well, we took an interest. Gave them some funds and provided volunteers. For reasons beyond our understanding they told our volunteers not to come. They had a well meaning director, Margaret Rasmussen. They terminated her.
They still have two people at Alfred who have some ongoing role. However, no direction,
whatsoever, or knowledge or available resources to catalogue what they have.
Last year we authorized Carol Ketchum to see if we could have some impact on trying to
communicate with a goal of preserving the archival material. Until today, she has had little
success. What follows is part of her report on today’s visit.
As Sandy put it, not so much as a shovel of dirt has been turned toward The PVGGC.
They were sorry not to have attended The Carder Symposium, Margaret always figured a way to
get their expenses covered. I assured them that they were welcome as honorary members. They
were afraid that status left when Margaret was “retired.” (Another reason it would have been
great to have gotten there before our symposium.)
They report they are making progress with the sorting. They have thousands of slides which
they are trying to sort and put in archival slip cases. (They need $$$$ for materials.)
I found as many as 3 copies of each slide, info on slides shows they were developed and duplicated in Maryland, undoubtedly while Paul was at The Smithsonian. I wonder if one copy was for his personal files, another for the book, another for The Smithsonian?
They said the materials arrived just tossed in huge Rubbermaid tubs. So far, most of the sorting is putting all the line drawings in the drawer, not sorted by any means. Lecture notes in file folders mostly one lecture per folder, but no discernible file system. One might say the topic, another the location where the lecture was given.
Marshall did find what he was looking for re: a particular shape # info. He just turned over
papers about 6″ worth till he found it.
They were so unaware of Steuben that they were thrilled that they had figured out that many of the slides were pictures in Gardner’s book. I feel bad that they have spent so much time and accomplished seemingly so little because they are not well versed in Steuben.
They are truly dedicated. Now to me the truly remarkable part. We certainly felt they have no idea why Ed, Louise, and Ruth stopped coming to help.
I asked if they would like help and they responded they would, so I gave them a list of people who offered to help when I asked at our business meeting.
We told them that we had visited with Diane Dolbashian, Head Librarian at The Rakow. She’s
been there just over a year and these gals at Alfred didn’t know about her, and Diane didn’t know about The PVGGC when we started our dialogue with her last September. We told them that Diane had indicated that she would take a “bunch” of people over there.
Among the files I saw today are folders with lecture notes which Paul made on various topics. One I recall was THREADED GLASS. He was referring to American Glass Houses across the board not just Steuben. Found notes from lectures in Seattle and references to Dick.
Sandy and Carole said Paul never threw away anything, and from what we saw I can believe it!
Programs from various Corning Glass Symposia, slips of paper with names and addresses of people he had met there with topics of interest, etc.
These gals have a tiny room with broken down furniture, one chair has been reupholstered and has a piece of paper taped to the back indicating it was done with funds from The PVGGC. They don’t so much as have business cards. They do have a beat up ancient copy machine which Sandy’s son works to keep working, but it’s a day by day thing.
Without clear direction they feel helpless to do anything or to spend any money.
With the little they know they have difficulty sorting things so that they will make sense to a glass researcher. Frankly I can’t imagine why they bother to stay on.
The glass is packaged and locked in a storage cabinet in the back of the room. I can imagine it could have been missing for months and nobody would know because they wouldn’t dare open the cabinet to find out if it is there. (Probably don’t have a key for it anyway!)
Marshall asked if they were aware that many of the pieces are extremely valuable ($40,000. for example.) They may be intimidated by it!
Marshall has agreed to go a couple of days when we get back next spring to sort the line drawings. I think I’ve told you at least as much as I know about our Alfred visit.