Dwight Lanmon discusses his impetus to “make glass interesting” to the public. Oral history interview with Dwight Lanmon by Catherine Whalen and Barb Elam, conducted via telephone, August 5, 2019, Bard Graduate Center. Clip length: 01:52.

Dwight Lanmon: That idea started basically with Jamie [James] Houghton who was then the chairman of the board of Corning Glass Works and I reported to both of the Houghtons—the brothers who were both—served as chairman and they served as president of the museum. So I reported directly to the head of corporation and one time Jamie invited a group called Young Presidents Association which were young presidents of corporations and really just starting out, but brilliant young people and he introduced me and I was at dinner, and then I was expected to take them through the museum afterwards and I said to Jamie as we were getting ready to start the program. I said, ‘Jamie, you give us 10 million dollars a year out of Corning Glass Works budget. Why do you do that? What is it you expect of me,’ and he smiled and he said, ‘Make glass interesting.’ He said, ‘That’s all, make glass interesting.’ He said, ‘I’ll take it from there.’ And I thought, ‘Wow, what a way to stoke you, and to get the interest in’—okay, fine everything we do has to make glass interesting. We know that people who came to Corning didn’t care at all about the history of glass. Okay, how are we going to grab them? Well, there are ways to do it. And so we experimented with those to make glass part of everyday life part of not history and antiquity, but to say there were living people who used these glass objects when they were new. Now, let me tell you about those people, and so we tried to relate it back to human beings all the time. And so that has been my role in museum work all along. How do I make glass interesting and understandable to people who don’t care? So you have one chance with a guest and that’s it. You have one chance, and if you blow it you’ve blown it.