 |
 |
 |
The town of Corning is famous for its glass industry, and the Corning factories of domestic and medical production, as well as the Glass Museum, are prominent features of the landscape as one approaches the town from the highway.
| |
|
|
The Glass Museum was the first port of call and provides a very sophisticated and polished presentation of the glass industry of the local region. The main features include displays of artefacts of glass craftsmanship, including a prominent emphasis on the technological developments and innovations of glass making in many sectors: auto, medical, domestic and scientific.
Corning is perhaps most well known for its production of the trademark Pyrex and ceramic glass cookware.
 |
 |
The museum also has an impressive array of glass artefacts and sculptures, indicating the malleability and creative potential of glass as an artistic medium, complementing its industrial usage.
 |
 |
There were also displays of glass sculpture and of hot glass blowing.
 |
 |
It was interesting to see what was missing from the account at the museum, most notably the lack of information about the development of the firm in the area. As with our experience of the power station at Niagara, it appeared that the historical contextualisation of the firm was not warranted explicit coverage. In particular, the emphasis was on the technology of glass and the inventors and developers of the technology, rather than the glass workers. There was a significant lack of information about the workforce of the glass industry or the social networks and interaction of the firm in community.
The market town of Corning is typical of similar towns of the region, dominated by one wide main street with tall nineteenth century buildings. The lack of information about the firm-in-community was interesting bearing in mind the obvious prominence of the Corning name in the town itself, not least in the names of the town's shops. The town's focus points include the market square, constructed by the community itself in the early twentieth century and the Corning glass works.
Research indicates that the Corning company management is particularly strong within the industrial relations of the area, with the trade union being moderate and apparently ineffectual in the region in terms of bargaining power. Perhaps this reflects the lack of visibility of labour within the official and formal presentations of the industry in Corning.
The aspiration is to compare the experience of the glass industry in Corning, with that of Stourbridge in the West Midlands, England.