Ferdinand Hampson discusses how he became interested in running a glass gallery. Oral history interview with Ferdinand Hampson by Catherine Whalen and Barb Elam, conducted via telephone, January 31, 2020, Bard Graduate Center. Clip length: 01:12.

Ferdinand Hampson: My former partner—who was married to my sister, they wanted to open up an art gallery. And they solicited me to help; to help more with business and they would take care of more of the aesthetics, it seemed like that was their impression. So as they were telling me that, you know, that this would be a fun business to be involved in and such, I was doing research on it and there was literally nothing written about galleries. It’s very interesting. But, so it was coming right down to it where I had to make a decision. And there was a Gilbert Johnson paperweight. And I said, ‘You know what, it’s the weekend, ‘Would you mind if I just take this home for the weekend?’ And they said, ‘No, go ahead,’ you know. So I fit it into my pocket. And so that weekend I carried it with me. And whenever I would be thinking about the decision, which was quite often, I’d pull this out and look at it. And so that paperweight convinced me that I should get involved in the business.