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Christmas On Main Street weekend began seven years ago to highlight the 1940’s years of glass making at the Corning Glass plant here in Wellsboro. Through this history, we have learned that 90% of the Christmas bulbs for the world were made here in Wellsboro.

I spoke with Clare Ritter of the Wellsboro Glass Historical Association at the Penn Wells Hotel to find out why Corning Glass chose Wellsboro to make those Christmas bulbs. Clare explained that the shape of the light bulb already being made here was the size of the first Christmas bulbs. So the transition was easy for them to make. Ellsworth Brown and other engineers started making unique shapes and patterns as time passed. These were eventually known as Shiny Brite.

I then went to the Gmeiner Art and Cultural Center to speak with Carrie Heath
about their exhibit, “A Gathering of Glass,” showcasing 100 years of Wellsboro’s glassmaking history. Carrie explained that the exhibition would include hundreds of items from the Wellsboro Glass Historical Association’s collection related to the Corning/GTO/Osram/Sylvania factory in Wellsboro. When I asked Carrie why it is so essential for us to know about the glass history, she replied, “I think that it is pretty incredible; if you think about by the 1960s, almost every household in the United States would have had something that was made here in Wellsboro. The people who worked in that factory changed the world.”

The exhibit in the Gmeiner gives us a glimpse of what the future glass museum could look like here in Wellsboro. The exhibit will be on display until Friday, December 30th, at 6 pm.