Duncan & Miller Glass Company

In 1865, George Duncan purchased the Ripley & Company glass factory at 10th and Carson Streets in the South Side neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from D.C. Ripley, a former business partner of Duncan.[1] The factory was located adjacent to the Monongahela River, which provided easy access to transportation.[1] A new company, George Duncan & Sons, was formed by Duncan, his sons Harry B. Duncan and James E. Duncan, and Augustus H. Heisey, who was married to George's daughter Susan.[1] In 1874, John Ernest Miller, a 20-year veteran of the glass manufacturing industry, joined the company as a designer.[1] He was previously the foreman of the mould shop at King, Son and Company.[1] The addition of Miller proved to be fortuitous, because Miller's designs over the next 52 years became internationally famous.[1] In 1877, George Duncan died and James E. Duncan took control of the company.[1]

Duncan & Miller Glass Company location in Washington, Pennsylvania.

In 1890, the United States Glass Company formed a glass trust that included the George Duncan & Sons operation.[1] In 1892, their factory was destroyed by fire, relieving the company of their trust relationship.[1] After the fire, son-in-law Augustus Heisey left the company to begin his own glass manufacturing operation in Newark, Ohio.[1] James E. Duncan built a new factory on Jefferson Avenue in Washington, Pennsylvania, where access to railroads was convenient, and the natural gas which was needed to power the furnaces was inexpensive.[1] Construction of the plant, which featured a 16 Pot Deep Eye furnace, was finished on January 3, 1893. The first pattern produced in the new facility was the well-known Mitchell pattern.[1] The new operation was named George Duncan's Sons & Co.

On November 15, 1900, after James Duncan's death, the firm was officially incorporated as Duncan and Miller Glass Company, with John Ernest Miller joining the Duncan family as stockholders.[1] The company abruptly ceased operations on June 13, 1955.[1] By then, modern assembly lines and glassmaking machinery caused hand made glass to be uneconomical.[1] The remaining inventory was sold at greatly reduced prices, causing glass collectors to travel hundreds of miles to purchase the final pieces.[1] The molds and equipment were sold to the US Glass Company, where their Duncan Division in Tiffin, Ohio continued to produce Duncan-ware pieces.[1][3] A number of Duncan employees also joined US Glass Company in Tiffin.[3] The Duncan factory was sold to Andy Bros., but before they could move in, a fire destroyed the building on June 29, 1956.[1] Production of the Duncan-ware glass ceased in 1980.[3]

A ruby red pitcher in Duncan's Georgian pattern.

At its peak, Duncan & Miller's glass was one of Washington's most successful manufacturing concerns, and was more widely known throughout the county than any other line of goods made in Washington.[2]

The glass making processes and technologies at Duncan & Miller did not significantly differ from contemporary glassmakers in Western Pennsylvania and neighboring Ohio and West Virginia.[1] Duncan differentiated itself through exceptional artistry and design. This was accomplished by employing highly skilled workers, and using unique batch formulas to produce colorful glass.[1] The production process for each piece usually required 10 craftsmen.[1]

Some of the most popular styles were produced during the 1920s through the 1940s, including the Canterbury, Caribbean, Hobnail, Nautical, Sandwich, Spiral Flutes and Teardrop.[3] The most famous design was a swan which required 14 craftsmen.[1] The most popular etching designs were the First Love, Language of Flowers, and Passion Flower.[3]

The National Duncan Glass Society was founded in 1975 at a meeting of glass collectors at the Citizens Library in Washington, Pennsylvania.[4] For the next 17 years, the society operated a Duncan Glass museum at the Washington County Historical Society office and the F. Julius LeMoyne House.[4] On July 8, 1993, the society opened a stand-alone museum in an old building on Jefferson Avenue, near the original location of the Duncan glass plant.[4]

One of the Duncan family residences was a 17-room Victorian mansion on Wheeling Street in Washington, Pennsylvania that was built in 1892. This mansion is now used as the Washington & Jefferson College President’s House.[5] Its design is archetypical Queen Anne Victorian style, with ornate "gingerbread" details, stained and beveled glass, recessed doors and windows, and louvered wooden shutters.[5] In 1944, Walter Hudson Baker, who was a graduate of Washington & Jefferson College, donated the house to the college in memory of his wife, Amy Duncan Baker; it has been used as the President's House since.[5] It was profiled in a book of regional architecture by the Washington County History and Landmarks Foundation.[5]

• Krause, Gail (1976). The Encyclopedia of Duncan Glass. Exposition Press of Florida. ISBN 0-682-48527-6. OL 4939671M.
• "The National Duncan Glass Journal". Washington, Pennsylvania: National Duncan Glass Society. 1975. OCLC 7881916. Archived from the original on 2011-03-01. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)

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