This episode is about Adams & Co. which was a Victorian glassworks founded in 1851 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Their company would get absorbed into the U.S. Glass Company in 1891.The works had many lives and partners.

Many of these partners would form their own glassworks with offshoots that include King & Co., Doyle & Co. and Dalzell Brothers & Gilmore.

They produced a wide range of glass but are most known today for their EAPG tableware and oil lamps.

Some of the partners of this firm were:

  • Joseph Roseman
  • Thomas Macklin
  • John Malone
  • Alexander King (King & Co. glassworks)
  • William Doyle (Doyle & Co. glassworks)
  • Joseph Doyle (Doyle & Co. glassworks)
  • Peter Kunzler
  • George F. Easton
  • Godfried Miller
  • James Dalzell (Dalzell Brothers & Gilmore glassworks)
  • Adolphus A Adams
  • William Adams

#eapg  #antiqueglass #pittsburghhistory #pressedglass #limeglass #glasshistory #americanglass #adamsglass

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Transcript

[Intro music] 00:00:00:00 - 00:00:32:20

Hi, I'm Melanie and this is Artifact and Landmark. This episode is about Adams & Co., which was a Victorian glassworks founded in 1851 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They operated until about 1891 when they were absorbed into the US Glass Company. The works had many lives and partners. Many of these partners would form their own glassworks. And we see some offshoots, including King & Co., Doyle & Co and Dalzell Brothers and Gilmore.

00:00:32:20 - 00:01:01:10

The company would evolve from making essentially glass fruit jars, glass lamps, chimneys to a wide range of beautiful pressed glass tableware. Most of the press glass pieces collected today were manufactured essentially during the last years of the company as an American Pressed Glass, or EAPG collector. Adams and Co does provide a wide variety of patterns and colors, and I'm just going to go through a few examples here.

00:01:01:13 - 00:01:27:21

The first one is pattern number 75, also known as square panes. This one is found at the Museum of American Glass. And you can see here the wonderful form of this piece. And they have many examples where they hollow out the stem, or they form these beautiful, geometric kinds of patterns. And the next one we have is number 130 sensation.

00:01:27:23 - 00:01:55:01

This is also known as 1000 eyes for obvious reasons. And we have examples here at the Met Museum of New York. And you can see the optical illusion this can create. Like many other Victorian glassworks of the day, they also offered up some of these and beautiful colors. And of course, some of them do fluoresce. One item to watch out for is some of these patterns have also been reproduced.

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So John Adams was known for introducing lime into glass production. So his line of glassware will not include lead versus other lines of the day.

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The earliest reference we could find to a glassworks associated with John Adams dates back to 1852, and it's an advertisement. The namesake of this company, John Adams, was born in 1823, and what was then called Westmoreland County. Of course, Westmoreland County got divvied up many times after this. This company operated at first as the Bohemian Glassworks under a partnership between Adams, Roseman and Company.

00:02:35:11 - 00:02:57:07

The location of the works was at the intersection of Water and Ross Streets, which was in Pittsburgh. And we can see it here on a map from 1852. The partnership included John Adams and Joseph Roseman. John Adams would have been about 28 years old, and Joseph Roseman would have been about 30 years old. It's unclear when Joseph left the partnership.

00:02:57:09 - 00:03:21:09

We do know that he continued to live on the South Side or Birmingham, Pittsburgh. He continued to be active in the glass trade until about ten years before his passing, which was in 1899. The next style of the company was Adams and Macklin and co, with the first mention of this company in 1854. We find them also operating out of the same location at Ross and Water.

00:03:21:11 - 00:03:45:01

And then John Adams now would be 31. His partner, Thomas Macklin, would have been about 37 years old and was a grocer by trade. That year, we also see Adams advertising a new fruit jar which actually might explain one reason for this new partnership. Tragically, that same year, in September, Thomas Macklin succumbs to cholera. He would have only been about 37 years old.

00:03:45:04 - 00:04:12:23

He would leave behind his wife, Martha Stewart, a daughter, Margaret Jane, and a son, Thomas, who was a baby when his father passed. Unfortunately, his son Tommy would pass away only five years later. As a sidebar, Thomas Macklin would be one of many to die during this cholera outbreak of 1854. It's reported that in one week, September 16th to September 23rd, almost 350 people died of this infection.

00:04:12:29 - 00:04:46:04

And for some perspective, estimates of the amount of deaths one could expect around this time would have been 1200 per year. And that compares, of course, to the 350 in this one week in September 1854. Of course, other cities, both in the United States and around the world had outbreaks as well, with similar death tolls. Even with Macklin's death, the company continued to operate under the same name of Adams, Macklin and Co.

In the book “Pittsburgh as It Is” published by George Henry Thurston in 1857,

00:04:46:10 - 00:05:09:18

we get a glimpse into the Pittsburgh glassworks around this time. If we ignore the typo of Adams founding date of 1831, which should read 1851, we can see that Adams has 20 pots, which are the clay pots used in the furnace to melt the glass, and the number of pots is a good indication of how much glass they can produce. What it doesn't indicate is a firm's financial health.

00:05:09:21 - 00:05:35:29

We see then in that same year, in 1857, Adams Macklin Co actually goes bankrupt. The glassworks is purchased at a sheriff's sale by two of his creditors, Alexander King, at the time a wholesale grocer and importer of soda ash - soda ash being a key ingredient for glass production – and Michael McCullough, also a wholesale grocer and liquor dealer.

00:05:35:29 - 00:06:03:23

So you would see why these two individuals would be interested in purchasing the glassworks. So the business does continue to operate at that same address until about 1860. But we do know that in 1862, Alexander King will separate from the company. So we assume he's also a partner. So in 1860, the current site of the glassworks were torn down for a company to expand onto that land.

00:06:03:27 - 00:06:25:20

And that company was Jones, Boyd & Co., also known as the Pittsburgh Steel Works. At the same time, Adams is actually in the process of building a new glass factory across from the Monongahela in Birmingham, now known as the South Side. This new factory would be built at McKee, now known as 10th and Williams, now known as now P.J. McArdle

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Roadway. The glassworks will spend the remainder of its operations at this location, expanding to several additional lots in the neighborhood. This illustration shows what the works would look like in 1879. We have the factory on the left hand side, and we have offices on the right hand side. We also have a map showing the location from 1872, and you can see the location here of the works and the offices.

00:06:55:11 - 00:07:20:29

With the move in 1861, the business adopts its final name of Adams & Company. Advertisements during this period indicates the manufacture of flint glass as well as green and flint fruit jars. They also list a new business of address of No 12 Wood, at the corner of Wood and Front Streets. And so this was most likely a warehouse that they used in Pittsburgh

00:07:20:29 - 00:07:48:22

but I'm not sure when they vacated this property. As mentioned before, in 1862, we see Alexander King break away from the company, forming his own glassworks in the style of King and Co. We also see in 1865 that their bankruptcy from 1857 is coming back into the courts. The reason is because other creditors are suing Alexander King and Michael McCullough for profiting from the bankruptcy.

00:07:48:22 - 00:08:24:19

since they believe they purchased the glassworks for much too low of a price. They do end up having to pay $16,200 to those creditors, which equates to over $600,000 in today's money.

And in 1867 William and Joseph Doyle now leave the partnership to form their own company, Doyle and Co. Their glassworks would also operate out of Birmingham or the South Side, but with a few people leaving, we see someone coming into the partnership and this is George Easton and he joins in 1868.

And in 1874,

00:08:24:19 - 00:08:49:02

we see more partnership changes. This time we see Peter Kunzler leave the partnership. So this leaves John Adams, John Malone, George F. Easton and God(tt)fried Miller as partners. But the next year, in 1875, John Adams brings a few of his sons into the business, Adolphus Adams and William Adams. And they also add James Dalzell to the firm.

00:08:49:04 - 00:09:16:28

In 1876, Adams and Co, along with many other glassworks, exhibit at the Centennial International Exhibition held in Philadelphia in 1876 and that same year of 1876, we see that the firm has 21 pots, which is slightly increased from its operation in Pittsburgh, which again had those 20 pots in 1877. We see another change in the partnership. This time, John Maloney leaves in 1879.

00:09:16:28 - 00:09:47:23

The leadership includes John Adams, his sons Adolphus and William, James Dalzell, George F Easton, and finally Godfried Miller. By that year, in 1879, Adams and Co has expanded to over two acres on William Street. At that time the works had two factories, alongside five additional buildings and two furnaces with a combined total of 23 pots. Their range of products included tableware, lamps and jelly tumblers.

00:09:47:25 - 00:10:13:28

The firm generated annual sales nearing $200,000, and they serve clients in the United States, Canada, Cuba and South America. The workforce comprises about 200 skilled workers, with an average weekly payroll amounting to about $10 per worker per week. In 1880, David E. Carle joins the firm, and in later years Carle would also become Superintendent of McKee Glass in Jeannette, Pennsylvania.

00:10:13:29 - 00:10:35:28

We also see on or before 1882, Samuel G. Vogeley start producing many popular designs for the firm. In addition to some of these glasses lines, we also see a few patents that are interesting. You can still find lamps that were designed from this specific 1883 patent, and you can see here it's a beautiful column lamp and in the center is this dome.

00:10:35:28 - 00:11:01:26

And in this dome he would actually put flowers or other objects. One of these lamps sold through Jeffrey S. Evans & Associates, an auction house, for $780 in 2024. Now, in 1883, we see another partner leave the firm. This time it's James Dalzell, and he'll be leaving to start a business called Dalzell Brothers and Gilmore in Wellsburg, West Virginia.

00:11:01:29 - 00:11:26:06

Unfortunately, he would pass in 1893 at the age of 39. On May 6th, 1884, we see a fire destroy one of the Adams and Co buildings, and it's said to have destroyed it within an hour. So the firemen couldn't actually get to it on time. It's said to have been started in the lehrs which is what manages the annealing or the cooling down process of the glass.

00:11:26:08 - 00:11:50:20

This loss was estimated at $10,000. And The 1884 Sandborn map shows the property, leased from Challinor, Hogan & Co. which was another glass manufacturer and we can see here as clearly shown, it is burnt down. The same location which was still occupied by Adams & Co. would experience another devastating fire in 1887.

00:11:50:23 - 00:12:15:28

This time the loss is estimated at $40,000. This 1884 map also highlights the expansion challenges that Adams and other glassworks are experiencing. During this time, we can see the many properties owned or leased by Adams Co and they're spread across the neighborhood. So an important event happens in 1886 that would really change the industry. What we see as a first glass syndicate.

00:12:15:28 - 00:12:41:20

And it's announced that the Adams and co will be part of the syndicate, and it's called the American Flint and Lime Glass Association. The aim of this group is to control pricing. That same year, in November 1886, we see the passing of John Adams, of course, then founder and the namesake of this company. There are several touching articles written about the funeral of this man and his passing which we'll cover in the next video.

00:12:41:23 - 00:13:06:10

In 1890, some rumors surface that the American Flint and Lime Glass Association is looking to sell out to an English company. But in 1891 we see Adams Co and other glassworks, including their neighbor Doyle and Co, form a new company, the US glass company. We’ll be delving more into U.S. Glass and the another large combine, the National Glass Company in another video.

00:13:06:13 - 00:13:22:27

So that's it for this episode. I hope you enjoyed learning a little bit more about Adams Glass. Subscribe to find out more about John Adams and other American glassworks, and check.