Glass - Wheaton Glassworks, Millville

Theodore Corson Wheaton, the founder of the T.C. Wheaton Company, was born in Tuckahoe, New Jersey, in 1852. He received his MD degree in 1879 and three years later moved to Millville, New Jersey. Wheaton had become interested in pharmacists’ and physicians’ glassware, and as a result, he bought out Fred Van Staden’s share in the already existing Shull-Goodwin Glass Company in Millville.(1) By 1890, Wheaton had bought out his remaining partners and renamed the company the T.C. Wheaton Company.

The T.C. Wheaton Company was nationally recognized for producing drug and screw-cap tablet vials. “The grinding department, specializing in ground stoppers and bottles, also expanded to the point that Wheaton became the largest supplier of ground glass stoppers in the United States.”(2) The plant also manufactured nursing bottles and breast pump glasses. By the 1930’s, the T.C. Wheaton Company was making perfume and cosmetic containers for Elizabeth Arden and Shulton.(3)

When T.C. Wheaton died in 1931, his son Frank H. Wheaton, Sr., was elected president of the company and chairman of the board of directors. Wheaton, Sr. began expanding and modernizing the plant. When Wheaton, Sr. died in 1983, his son, Frank H. Wheaton, Jr., oversaw the glass plant and established a new enterprise called the Wheaton Glass Company. This company specialized in manufacturing perfume and cosmetic containers, glass tubing, and even began to experiment with producing plastics. In 1966, the T.C. Wheaton Company merged with the Wheaton Glass Company. Two years later, Wheaton, Jr., founded Wheaton Village, an organization that is devoted to “celebrating and sharing the creative spirit of American glass and other craft.” Wheaton, Jr. wanted to create a venue that would educate the public about the art and history of American glassmaking.(4)

For three generations, the Wheaton family owned and successfully operated the Wheaton Glass Company in Millville. In 1971, the T.C. Wheaton Company and Wheaton Glass Company became incorporated under the name of Wheaton Industries.(5) Wheaton Industries was sold in 1996 to a division of Alusiusse Lonza Holding, Ltd. of Switzerland, a company that manufactures pharmaceutical packaging.(6) The firm was later renamed Wheaton USA, Inc. in 2000. (MRG)

(1-2) “Brief History of Wheaton Glass Company,” typescript, Wheaton Village Museum Research Library Archives.

(3 & 5) “History of Wheaton Glass Company,” Wheaton Village Museum Docent Training Manual, Case 1.

(4) “Wheaton Village,” New Jersey State Council on the Arts Grant Proposal (2004), pp.1-2.

(6) “Wheaton buyout approval,” The Atlantic City Press, (22 May 1996), pp. A1, A11.

Examples of Glass from Wheaton Village

Examples of Glass from Wheaton Village, Millville. Photograph © Walter Choroszewski (see link below).

A guest artist blowing a glass vessel at Wheaton Village. Photograph courtesy Wheaton Village.

Glass artists at work, Wheaton Village. Photograph by Warren R. Ogden.

The workers at the original T.C. Wheaton Glass Company had a very important task--they were responsible for turning sand into functional glass pieces. Traditional glassmaking is an art form and requires a lot of skill and patience. First, the glass artist takes a glob of silica sand on the end of his/her blowpipe from the 2,000 degree heated furnace. Next, the artist introduces a puff into the pipe top to make a bubble in the glass. “Following this the pipe gets rolled along the edge of a table, to widen and balance the glass glob. Then it is thrust into a cup containing powdered gold, which will redden the finished glass to a translucent rose.”(1) The glob goes back into the furnace. When it comes out, the artist takes the tube and rolls it, while his/her other hand sculpts the blob through the use of shaping tools. As time goes by, the spinning blob starts to acquire a shape. A handle or color may be added and various shaping tools might be used. When the artist is content with the design of the glass, he/she will place it into the furnace hole one last time.(2) (MRG)

(1-2) Rob Laymon, “Hot Stuff: The Art of Glassmaking,” Art Beat (Winter 2003), pp. 23-28.

Additional Reference: Wheaton Village web site, Feb. 2004 (see link below).