Mappae Clavicula

The Mappae Clavicula is a 12th-century Latin manuscript that includes more than 200 recipes for for various processes, including distilling alcohol, making candy, creating military devices, making colored glass, and painting or staining on glass.

The title of the Mappae Clavicula has been translated by scholars Cyril Stanley Smith and John G. Hawthorne as A Little Key to the World of Medieval Techniques. The Mappae Clavicula is the oldest item in the Rakow Library’s collection.

Glass 1959: A Special Exhibition of International Contemporary Glass

Glass 1959: A Special Exhibition of International Contemporary Glass was the first major exhibition of glass design after World War II.

Organized by Thomas S. Buechner, director of The Corning Museum of Glass, the exhibition opened in Corning, New York, and subsequently traveled to The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (1959–1960); The Toledo Museum of Art (1960); The Art Institute of Chicago (1960); and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond (1960). This catalog documents artists and designers of the period.

New Glass: A Worldwide Survey

New Glass signaled an important shift in glassmaking—from commercial design to studio craft. The exhibition had a significant impact on contemporary glass, and its future development, by documenting what was still a young artistic movement.

Curated by William Warmus, assistant curator of 20th-century glass at the Museum, New Glass opened in Corning, New York, in 1979, and subsequently traveled to many museums, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (1980–1981); the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (1981); and the Musée des Arts Décoratifs du Louvre, Paris (1982). The catalog provides the first major survey of international contemporary studio glass.