A New Light on Tiffany: Clara Driscoll and the Tiffany Girls

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A New Light on Tiffany: Clara Driscoll and the Tiffany Girls

A New Light on Tiffany presents groundbreaking research revealing the many women who played a crucial role in the design and creation of Tiffany Studios’ masterpieces, in particular, Clara Driscoll (1861–1944), head of the Women’s Glass Cutting Department. Driscoll’s recently discovered correspondence, written during her employment at Tiffany Studios at the turn of the century, reveals that she was responsible for many of the firm’s most iconic lampshades, including the Wisteria, Dragonfly and Poppy, as well as numerous other objects made with glass, bronze and mosaic. In addition to designing, Driscoll managed a large department of young women, known as the “Tiffany Girls,” who specialized in selecting and cutting glass for windows, shades and mosaics.

Tiffany Studios (1902-1932), Dragonfly Table lamp, c. 1900-1906. Glass, bronze. New-York Historical Society, Gift of Dr. Egon Neustadt, N84.113

The exhibition includes approximately sixty Tiffany lamps, windows, mosaics, enamels and ceramics designed by Clara Driscoll and other women at Tiffany Studios, as well as numerous objects made under her direction. Supplementary archival material documents the activities at Tiffany Studios and sheds light on Driscoll’s experience as a New York working woman at the turn of the century.

Tour Schedule

Venue	Dates
New-York Historical Society (New York, NY)	February 23–May 28, 2007
Singer Laren Museum (The Netherlands)	December 16, 2008–August 30, 2009
Museum Villa Stuck (Munich, Germany)	October 15, 2009–January 17, 2010
The Albuquerque Museum of Art and History (Albuquerque, NM)	May 8–August 21, 2011
Henry Morrison Flagler Museum (Palm Beach, FL)	January 31–April 22, 2012

Resources

Click here for dramatic readings of Driscoll’s letters by actress Lois Chiles and curatorial commentary by Martin Eidelberg, Professor Emeritus of Art History at Rutgers University; Nina Gray, independent scholar and former Associate Curator of Decorative Arts at the New-York Historical Society; and Margaret K. Hofer, New-York Historical Society Curator of Decorative Arts.

A catalogue by the three curators, also available in Dutch and German translations, accompanies the exhibition.

For more information, please e-mail travelingexhibitions@nyhistory.org