How the Turner Glass Collection came to be located at the Chelmsford Historical Society is a classic story about historical preservation — and more. Here is the story.
Francis Hirsch was a German glassblower who created most of the items in the glass collection. He worked at the Chelmsford Glass Works in Middlesex Village. At the end of the workday, Francis would make use of the glass left over from window glass production to create kitchen glassware and whimsical glass items. He brought these items back to the home he built at 375 Pine Street in Lowell (Chelmsford until 1874). Family members and descendants dispersed these glass items throughout the households of Middlesex Village over time.
In 1953, Clyde Turner, considered an authority on early American glass and a Hirsch descendant, passed away (3). He had loaned to the Society a small collection of glass items. His mother, grandmother, and great-grandfather, Francis Hirsch, had passed the items down to him. There were still more glass objects, however. His son, Gardner, assumed responsibility for assembling the collection. Turner recognized their historical value and began assembling a collection that preserved examples of 18th- and 19th-century table and decorative glass.
Like many collectors of his era, he gathered objects through:
• local estate sales
• purchases from antique dealers
• family inheritances
• artifacts discovered in old houses and farmsteads
His collecting was typical of the local antiquarian tradition that helped form many early historical society collections across Massachusetts.
Tragically, Gardner C. Turner was killed in an automobile accident (2) in January 1970. The glass collection was now collecting dust in the attic of their house on Pine Street.
However, his wife, Virginia, would not let his work, or the work of her father-in-law, disappear. She worked with John Perry Richardson, then president of the Chelmsford Historical Society, regarding the ownership of the glass collection. She had been contacted by the Corning Museum of Glass about selling the collection to them. Fortunately, she decided that the collection should remain in their hometown. (1) Most likely, they considered Chelmsford, and not Lowell, their hometown because that is where Middlesex Village was located when the glass collection was made.
There was one problem, though. The Society had just assumed ownership of the Barrett-Byam Homestead and did not have adequate storage capabilities for the glass collection. The family decided to loan the collection to the Society (2) for ten years. If the storage problems were satisfactorily resolved during that time, ownership would then pass to the Society. Additionally, if the Society had the collection appraised, Mrs. Gardner C. Turner would match that amount with a cash donation.
Well lit cabinets were built by Dick Lahue (1) in the dining room of the homestead to store the glass collection. They have ultraviolet glass on the cabinet doors to protect them from sunlight.
Today, the Chelmsford Historical Society is the proud guardian of the Gardner C. Turner Glass Collection. It contains 69 items, both practical and whimsical. We are grateful for the preservation efforts and the vision of the Turners.
Please feel free to contact the Chelmsford Historical Society for a tour of the Barrett-Byam Homestead and the Turner Glass Collection.
(1) German Glass Blowers in Chelmsford by Dorit Lammers
in Acknowledgments
(2) German Glass Blowers in Chelmsford by Dorit Lammers Page 65
(3) https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/292829283/clyde-arthur-turner
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