Duncan Glass Museum

The first phase of the Duncan and Miller Glass Museum history began in 1975 when two rooms in the Washington County Historical Society building, LeMoyne House, became home for the young museum. Through seventeen years, a harmonious relationship was maintained, mutually beneficial to both organizations. Both groups needed more room and in March 1992 we aquired title to the property at 525 Jefferson Avenue one block from the old factory site at 655 Jefferson Avenue.

It is fitting that the opening on July 8, 1993 of the new museum celebrates one hundred years since the opening of the Jefferson Avenue plant in 1893 in Washington. The museum is a tribute to the employees and their skills and craftsmanship, to the management and its long record of excellent productivity and to the enduring beauty of the glass. It is a valuable asset to the community. ( The museum features an all glass factories of Washington exhibit room ).
George Duncan formed the hand made tableware glass company at 10th and Carson Street in Southside, Pittsburgh in 1872, having been associated with with the glass industry since the early 1860's. It was a partner-ship with his sons Harry B. Duncan and James E. Duncan and Augustus H. Heisey, the husband of his daughter Susan. At that time the Southside was the industrial hub of the city. Barge transportation and sand, silica and potash needed to make glass were readily available.

Also located on the Southside were the descendents of generations of skilled glass makers. Pittsburgh was a leader in glass production from colonial times and skilled workers had been attracted there from the great European glass centers.

One of the men who joined the company in 1874 was john Ernest Miller, who had worked through many stages in the glass industry for twenty years. He became famous as a designer for the company for the next fifty-two years.

After a short period from from 1890 - 1892 when the firm was company D in the United States Glass Company combine, the plant was destroyed by fire. George Duncan had died in 1877 and his son James, head of the company, selected a site for the new factory on Jefferson Avenue in Washington, Pennsylvania. On January third, 1893 the new plant was finished. The 16 pot "Deep Eye" furnace was fired up and the first pattern to be made on February 9th was the Mitchell pattern.

Seventy of the employees of the old Pittsburgh factory relocated in Washington, and many worked fifty, sixty, even seventy years for the plant which produced brilliant polished articles of excellent design.Ernest Miller was made partner in 1900. At the death of James Duncan Sr. in 1900, his younger brother Harry B. Duncan became President and served until his death in 1925 when James Duncan Jr. followed as President.

Closing of the plant came on August 30th, 1955 when moulds, machinery and equipment were sold to United States Glass Co., with headquarters in Tiffin, Ohio. The history of the lovely Duncan and Miller Glass has a new chapter in the opening of the glass museum where collectors, dealers and all those interested in beautiful glass and the art of glassmaking may visit, enjoy and learn from the exhibits.