Kenneth Wilson, 83, Historian of Glass
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Kenneth Wilson, a noted glass historian and a former museum curator known as “Mr. American Glass,” died March 29 at his home in Punta Gorda, Fla. He was 83 and had leukemia.
The White House called on Wilson’s expertise during the first Bush presidency by asking him to inspect and estimate the age of each window, his wife said.
His interest in glass from the colonial era onward was sparked when he was assigned to design a display at Old Sturbridge Village 50 years ago.
From there, he moved to the Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, N.Y., and the Henry Ford Museum, in Dearborn, Mich., where he served as director of collections and preservation.
Wilson wrote books on antique bottles and flasks, New England glassmaking, and the Toledo Museum of Art’s glass collection. In two months, his final book is slated to be issued, an antique collectors’ guide to the works of Pairpoint Glass, the oldest American glassmaker.
He received an award in 2000 from the Richards Foundation and the Corning Museum for research on American glass.
