NetworK ezine Issue 118. March 2025
Totally Devoted to Carnival Glass
Welcome to this Special Edition of NetworK.
The Annual Glass Exhibit at Pittsburgh, 1910
Our focus in this Special Edition is one distinct event in time – the “Glass Exhibit at Pittsburgh” in January 1910. The year was hugely significant for Carnival in many ways, and this specific event epitomised the growth of Carnival Glass and highlighted the companies that were making it.
Carnival made its early beginnings in 1907 at Fenton and its initial, rather timid, low-key appearance had been seen at the Pittsburgh Glass Exhibit in 1908. There is little reported information about the 1909 Glass Exhibit, but other evidence, for example from Butler Brothers ads, suggests Carnival was still in more of a supporting, but emerging, role to other types of glass.
The January 1910 Glass Exhibit at Pittsburgh was (in retrospect) therefore something of a “make or break” event for Carnival. All the significant influencers of the day were there. The major glassmakers were displaying their latest products and designs to the leading wholesalers, agents and retailers. Ultimately, each in their own way was looking to find the next "big seller" or fashion to grab the attention of the buying public. Arguably, had this style of press moulded iridescent glass not been a "hit" with these top decision-makers of the day, the worldwide phenomenon that Carnival became may not have happened.
Our focus in this Special Edition is one distinct event in time – the “Glass Exhibit at Pittsburgh” in January 1910. The year was hugely significant for Carnival in many ways, and this specific event epitomised the growth of Carnival Glass and highlighted the companies that were making it.
Carnival made its early beginnings in 1907 at Fenton and its initial, rather timid, low-key appearance had been seen at the Pittsburgh Glass Exhibit in 1908. There is little reported information about the 1909 Glass Exhibit, but other evidence, for example from Butler Brothers ads, suggests Carnival was still in more of a supporting, but emerging, role to other types of glass.
The January 1910 Glass Exhibit at Pittsburgh was (in retrospect) therefore something of a “make or break” event for Carnival. All the significant influencers of the day were there. The major glassmakers were displaying their latest products and designs to the leading wholesalers, agents and retailers. Ultimately, each in their own way was looking to find the next "big seller" or fashion to grab the attention of the buying public. Arguably, had this style of press moulded iridescent glass not been a "hit" with these top decision-makers of the day, the worldwide phenomenon that Carnival became may not have happened.
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If clear crystal or opalescent glass had been best sellers in January 1910, and iridescent glass had not caught the buyers’ interest, might Carnival have simply faded away? It is entirely plausible that the glassworks might have changed their production plans and gone in a different direction. Yes, Carnival would probably have continued to be made ... but would there have been the explosion of designs, colours, shapes and volume of production that occurred in subsequent years (and which expanded all around the world)? Of course, we can never know, but this one event in time has the look and feel of a "trigger" which put mass produced, iridescent glass (Carnival) on the path to its worldwide success story. In this issue - Part One - we’ll take you back in time and reflect on life at the 1910 “Glass Exhibit”. We’ll build the atmosphere, and help the reader experience a sense of the mood. We’ll see where and how the “Glass Exhibit” was hosted and what the buildings – and even the rooms – looked like. We’ll give you insights into the significant characters of the day - who they were, why they were there, and what they were doing. And we’ll even offer a taste of what they might have been dining on. |
Left: two blue opalescent Tree Trunk vases by Northwood.
Right: two Carnival Tree Trunk vases by Northwood. Photos courtesy Burns Auctions and Seeck Auctions. |
In retrospect, we can see now that it was THE place to be. 1910 was to be an exciting, significant, and notable time for Classic Carnival. Production was about to expand significantly as demand was rising. All the major glassmakers in the USA were now making their own iridescent glass, and – importantly – this style of glass was attracting attention around the world.
In Part Two we have a specific focus on the wealth of Carnival Glass that would have been on display, and we also divulge some fascinating Carnival revelations and dig into the backstories and insights that hindsight offers us. Prepare for some surprises. So, join us on our amazing journey. Step into the past as we roll back the years to January 1910 to visit the …
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Part One: Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, in south-western Pennsylvania, lies at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers, where they combine to form the Ohio River. Its nickname back in 1910 was the Smoky City, because of the industrial air pollution. Although Pittsburgh’s importance and growth were founded on iron and steel, it was also important for the glass industry, especially in the late 1800s and early 1900s. In 1910, the wider area around Pittsburgh (which included the locations of all the main Carnival makers) was producing the largest share of the USA’s glass output. The Smoky City was the obvious choice for the glass producers and their buyers, to meet up, exhibit and sell their wares. Back in the early 1900s, throughout the month of January, Pittsburgh held its annual “Glass Exhibit” trade show – it was an established and popular venue for the glass producers to demonstrate, showcase and promote their new lines. January was a cold month, with the temperature hovering around freezing, and the newspaper weather reports for Pittsburgh in 1910 indicated that there had been blizzards at the start of the month, but they had decreased to snow showers and flurries for the rest of the month. |
Above: Fort Pitt Hotel, Pittsburgh, c. 1910. Courtesy Glass Paper Fanatics.
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Typically, several of the city’s prestigious hotels were used to host the event. It was clearly important for the glass makers, their agents, and jobbers, but it was also a great money-spinner for the chosen hotels – one hotel was said to have received over $10,000 in January 1910, from the glass manufacturers alone! (Probably equating to around $300,000 today). And that was the Fort Pitt Hotel.
Typically, several of the city’s prestigious hotels were used to host the event. It was clearly important for the glass makers, their agents, and jobbers, but it was also a great money-spinner for the chosen hotels – one hotel was said to have received over $10,000 in January 1910, from the glass manufacturers alone! (Probably equating to around $300,000 today). And that was the Fort Pitt Hotel.
Fort Pitt Hotel
The expos (trade shows/exhibits) held in Pittsburgh had previously used the well-known Monongahela House Hotel, but in 1910 the hotel of choice was the new kid on the block, the Fort Pitt. It was the place to be and to be seen in, with its sensational communal rooms such as the Norse Room. The Fort Pitt was so impressive that it earned itself a 4-page spread in the national “Architects and Builders Magazine” which declared that “The Fort Pitt Hotel, Penn Avenue, Tenth and Eleventh streets, Pittsburgh, is undoubtedly destined to become one of the greatest show places in Pittsburgh.
The expos (trade shows/exhibits) held in Pittsburgh had previously used the well-known Monongahela House Hotel, but in 1910 the hotel of choice was the new kid on the block, the Fort Pitt. It was the place to be and to be seen in, with its sensational communal rooms such as the Norse Room. The Fort Pitt was so impressive that it earned itself a 4-page spread in the national “Architects and Builders Magazine” which declared that “The Fort Pitt Hotel, Penn Avenue, Tenth and Eleventh streets, Pittsburgh, is undoubtedly destined to become one of the greatest show places in Pittsburgh.
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Built in 1905, crucially an 11-storey tower had been added to the Fort Pitt in 1909 (you can see it on the left of the structure on the image above), which made the hotel a great attraction for the many customers attending business conventions, trade shows and exhibitions like the “Glass Exhibit”. It had plenty of accommodation (reportedly 800 rooms) and very attractive facilities for tradesmen and business people to enjoy their leisure time, and perhaps to make deals over meals! The complaint in previous years from the customers and buyers had been that they were seeing “glass all day and all night”. The big attraction of the Fort Pitt was that it offered a splendid array of amenities and fashionable venues. So, let’s see what the Carnival makers, the jobbers, agents and all those staying at the Fort Pitt in 1910 would have experienced, where the bedrooms were priced at $1.50 minimum, per night, with meals being extra. These are the rooms and venues that Harry Northwood, Tom Dugan, John Fenton, and many more would have relaxed in, dined in and perhaps struck Carnival Glass deals in. |
Above: the famed Norse Room at the Fort Pitt Hotel, Pittsburgh, c. 1910.
Courtesy Glass Paper Fanatics. |
The Norse Room (aka the “gentlemen’s grill room”) was the big attraction. Completed just months before the 1910 “Glass Exhibit” it had cost $85,000 to create (statistics suggest this equates to an eye-watering $2.8 million today). It was written about and praised in many design and architectural journals, and even earned plenty of column space in newspapers as well as crockery & glass trade journals. It must have made new arrivals gasp as they entered that vaulted space in the basement of the Fort Pitt – the walls decorated with expensive and exceptionally beautiful faience tiles, and the lighting provided by suspended Viking style “long boats”. The national journal “The Clay Worker” described the Norse Room in its 1910 journal as a “Triumph in Decorative Art”. The ceramic tiles were made by the famed Cincinnati firm, Rookwood Pottery, and the large wall panels depicted Norsemen in fierce sea battles.
For Harry Northwood, it’s possible he would have been reminded of the amazing Maw’s lustre tiles, produced near his home town in Stourbridge, England; collectors and researchers have pondered whether Harry might have been inspired by Arts & Crafts era tiles when creating some of his Carnival patterns.
The colours of the tiles in the Norse Room were described as a “superb palette of color” – cream, delicate blue, white and light green”. It’s not hard to imagine Harry Northwood dining in the Norse Room in January 1910.
Perhaps Harry gazed at the lustred icy white, light green and pale blue shades in the Norse Room, and was inspired a few years later to create his Carnival pastel shades such as this stunning Hearts and Flowers bowl in ice blue.
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Another dining room at the Fort Pitt was the Vine Room.
It was filled with palms and it offered a change of scenery from the Norse Room. Above: the Vine Room, courtesy Glass Paper Fanatics. |
What would the glass makers and traders have eaten back in 1910, when they attended the “Glass Exhibit”? There was an informal dinner during the expo each year, held by the Western Glass and Pottery Association. The postcard below, right shows the room at the Fort Pitt, called the "English Room", where the attendees dined at their annual banquet. Although we have an account of some of the proceedings in 1910, no menu was given.
We did find this menu (below, left) for the Western Glass and Pottery Association's dinner at the Fort Pitt in January the following year (1911), and we felt you would enjoy reading it. Especially interesting was the “command” … “Glass men, fall in!” as an invitation to start the banquet. The menu was shown in the 1911 Crockery and Glass Journal.
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Above: The English Room which was also used as the Banquet Hall. Clearly the armchairs and occasional tables would have been replaced with large banqueting tables
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Other Hotels and Glass Showrooms
It’s important to note that the Fort Pitt was not the only hotel used for the “Glass Exhibit”. As we will see, Thomas Dugan did not have his displays set up at the Fort Pitt – the main hotel for the expo - as his cousin Harry Northwood did. Dugan was instead at the Seventh Avenue Hotel (in company with several other glass makers, including Lancaster and Westmoreland). It was an older, 6-storey structure, dating back to 1872, and had around 250 rooms, with 4 dining areas. The Seventh Avenue Hotel was just a block away from the Fort Pitt, making it convenient for the buyers to walk between the various venues. As well as the hotels, there were sixteen city showrooms in Pittsburgh, where glass and ceramics were being promoted to the “Glass Exhibit” buyers. Prominent among these was the Fenton Art Glass Showroom on Sixth Street, just over two blocks away from the Fort Pitt Hotel. Fenton’s promoter and colleague, George Mortimer (a glass wholesaler/jobber) had a hand in running the showroom. No doubt a warm welcome awaited the buyers who strolled along from the Fort Pitt – perhaps a hot whisky toddy, candied fruit or a slice of gingerbread. |
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The People
Who were the people at the Pittsburgh “Glass Exhibit” in 1910? There were two main groups, of course – those wanting to display and sell their glass, and those interested in purchasing or marketing that glass.
Glass Makers and Sellers
Let’s start with the glass makers who were there to display and sell their wares. There were 41 exhibitors (8 of whom were pottery/ceramic makers) staying at the Fort Pitt and 5 exhibitors at the Seventh Avenue. Two other hotels were also involved but they only had a handful of cut glass exhibitors and just one featuring pottery – and of course, as mentioned above, there were also the glass company owners and representatives in the Pittsburgh Showrooms. Let’s take a look at some of the familiar names.
Who were the people at the Pittsburgh “Glass Exhibit” in 1910? There were two main groups, of course – those wanting to display and sell their glass, and those interested in purchasing or marketing that glass.
Glass Makers and Sellers
Let’s start with the glass makers who were there to display and sell their wares. There were 41 exhibitors (8 of whom were pottery/ceramic makers) staying at the Fort Pitt and 5 exhibitors at the Seventh Avenue. Two other hotels were also involved but they only had a handful of cut glass exhibitors and just one featuring pottery – and of course, as mentioned above, there were also the glass company owners and representatives in the Pittsburgh Showrooms. Let’s take a look at some of the familiar names.
Harry Northwood.
Picture courtesy of Fenton Art Glass and the Fenton Family. Right: Charles De la Croix with a Northwood Carnival sales display – colorized by AI.
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Harry Northwood, his son Clarence, and Charles de la Croix were all at the Fort Pitt Hotel, where they would have reserved two rooms for the display of Northwood’s glass. It’s possible that Harry wasn’t there all the time, and likely that his brother Carl Northwood (the sales representative for the glass works) was also there. And almost certainly Charles J. De la Croix was “on duty”. De la Croix was a free-lance sales agent who was described in the “Pottery, Glass and Brass Salesman” as a “well known traveller for the H. Northwood Co”. We can see Chas in the photo below when he was showing Northwood’s Carnival at a 1911 sales pitch in Portland, Maine (link in the footnote references at end). The way Northwood’s glass is set up in the hotel room would almost certainly have been just how it was at the 1910 Pittsburgh “Glass Exhibit”. 
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The Pittsburgh “Glass Exhibit” at the Fort Pitt was to become a scene of personal tragedy for the Northwood family eight years later. Harry’s brother Carl, attending the show as chief salesman for the company, collapsed outside the Fort Pitt Hotel and died, aged just 46. (It is significant to note that Carl Northwood’s great-grandson, David McKinley, established the New Northwood Art Glass Company in 1997 and had several Carnival items made by Fenton).
Thomas Dugan.
Picture courtesy Fenton Art Glass and the Fenton Family. |
Thomas Dugan did not have his displays set up at the Fort Pitt as his cousin Harry Northwood did. Dugan was instead at the nearby Seventh Avenue Hotel, along with his friend and associate, Walter Minnemayer, who, as head of sales (and investor) in the Dugan Glass company oversaw the exhibits. 
Above: a line of automobiles outside the Seventh Avenue Hotel,
at Liberty and 7th., in Pittsburgh. |
Minnemayer’s mind might not have been totally on his job, however, as the “Crockery and Glass Journal” reported that “while exhibiting the wares of Dugan Glass Co. at the Seventh Avenue Hotel (he) received word that a little baby daughter had arrived at his home”.
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Westmoreland Specialty Glass was represented at the Seventh Avenue Hotel by Edward G Minnemeyer, the younger brother of Walter Minnemeyer (at Dugan Glass).
Lancaster Glass was represented at the Seventh Avenue Hotel by L. P. Martin.
Other glass makers at the “Glass Exhibit” familiar to Carnival collectors included Cambridge, Jefferson, Jenkins, Indiana, Federal and Heisey.
What about Imperial? You may well ask, so let’s take a look and see …
Imperial took a very different approach to their sales and marketing. They had taken a decision back in 1905 that they would not attend any Pittsburgh Glass Exhibitions, but would instead handle all their own marketing and promotions. And they were extremely successful at it. They used agents such as Cox & Lafferty, who had major showrooms in New York, alongside extensive advertising campaigns and various sales gimmicks that caught the buyer’s eye.
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They also invited all buyers to visit their factory in Bellaire, see the goods being produced, appreciate the high quality and of course, place their orders. As the Imperial Glass works was only 65 miles away from Pittsburgh, it was clearly hoped that buyers would stop off on their way from (or preferably toward) the Pittsburgh show. |
Above: an extract from 1905 “Glass & Pottery World” feature on Imperial.
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Glass Buyers
The 1910 "Crockery and Glass" journal reported that … “All buyers who have been to the glass and pottery exposition here this week have purchased largely of general lines” adding “It is important that all buyers of glass ... should attend the Pittsburgh exhibit this month.” The sales continued into a successful second week in January, 1910. The “Crockery and Glass” journal reported that “More buyers were in the market during the second week of the glass exhibit than ever before in the history of the display”. That was impressive, and indeed some of the glass salesmen reported that orders in those first two weeks were double that of the previous year. |
Above: the “Crockery and Glass” journal reported
“Good Buying at Pittsburgh” in their January 5th 1910 issue. |
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The buyers were dominated by big names such as Woolworths, Sears Roebuck, Sommers and Butler Brothers (the last three were important mail order catalogues with a national sales base).
Above: 1910 Woolworth store frontage – note the way it was described as the
5 and 10 cent store. Courtesy Woolworth Museum. Left: three catalogues from buyers who were at the “Pittsburgh Exhibit”, 1910. Left to right - G. Sommers & Co., May 1910; Sears Roebuck, Spring 1910; and Butler Brothers “Our Drummer”, Mid-Winter 1910. |
Clearly these mayor buyers were the ones that the glass makers hoped to impress. Most of the buyers stayed at the Fort Pitt Hotel, these included Louis Fritz and D. D. Ottstott for Butler Brothers, P. A. Merkland for Sears Roebuck, C. Case buying for Woolworths and Frank Merrill for G. Sommers & Co.
Above: this gives you an idea of the size of the Butler Brothers business!
It is the floor layout of the display units in their massive Sample Room (in 1913) in their Chicago premises.
It is the floor layout of the display units in their massive Sample Room (in 1913) in their Chicago premises.
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So, the scene is set. The (now famous) Carnival glassmakers and the major buyers of the period were assembled in the opulent surroundings of the finest hotels in the area, (where they were no doubt also enjoying all the food and drink) ... and the artistic novelty of Carnival Glass was set out in magnificent displays. In NetworK #119 we will take a look at the amazing Carnival that was on display and what items the big buyers would have purchased. Be prepared for some surprises and some revelations in Part Two of the “Glass Exhibit at Pittsburgh"! References and Links
Sales Agent for Harry Northwood: Charles De la Croix "Low prices, quality merchandise, strong mail-order advertising, and honest dealing": G. Sommers and Co Your Courteous 'Our Drummer' is Anxious to Serve You": Butler Brothers "The Cheapest Supply House on Earth": Sears Roebuck |
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Part 2 of "The Annual Glass Exhibit at Pittsburgh, 1910".
Click on the image below to read Part 2 of this truly eventful gathering
of the major players in the United States glass industry in 1910.
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