Glass offers clear look into history

Philadelphia's upper crust turned out Thursday night to preview the University Museum's new exhibit, entitled "Roman Glass: Reflections on Cultural Change." Stuart Fleming, the exhibit's curator, addressed a packed Harrison Auditorium crowd of approximately 300 people. The crowd was one of the largest ever for an opening, according to University Museum Director Jeremy Sabloff. Interspersing Elvis jokes with a presentation about the exhibit's opening, Fleming focused on the cultural and historical context of glassmaking. He punctuated his speech with color slides of the items on display. The exhibit, a collection of Roman glass never before put on public display, culminates almost six years of work by Fleming, the scientific director of the Museum Applied Science Center for Archaeology. Fleming said he was thrilled with the turnout and the favorable reception "Roman Glass" received, but described his primary emotion as "relieved." Following his speech, the audience, primarily University Museum members and patrons, roamed the exhibition hall and sipped cocktails in the main lobby. The display, consisting of more than 200 pieces, primarily features household items. Used mostly by poorer families, glass was often used to imitate the gold and silver services used by the rich. "The Roman contribution to glassmaking is simple," Fleming told the audience. "They industrialized it." By the most conservative calculations, several million glass items were produced every year to meet household demand in Roman times, Fleming said. Many of the pieces on display come from Roman burial sites and were placed there during ceremonies to prepare the dead for the afterlife. The artifacts, housed in glass cases, are exhibited among plants and display signs. The signs provide a brief picture of the society that produced the items and the uses to which they were put. While most considered this a nice touch, some felt the focus on the context of the glass was misplaced. "It's like seeing a painting," Philadelphia resident Renee Crauder said. "You don't want to know what the painter had for breakfast." Fleming disagreed, stressing that "most of all, I take from this glass that people handled it, washed it, used it on an everyday basis." Much of the audience praised the presentation of the objects. The lighting was singled out for particular notice, and University Museum member Donald Scott described the effect as "breathtaking? unlike any [way I've] ever seen glass displayed in a museum before." Fleming said there was extensive work done in the conception of the presentation, so that to the lighting would "bring out the luster" of the objects. But "you have to really understand and feel these pieces," he said, unwilling to shift the focus to the beauty of the displayed objects. "If [the exhibit] doesn't do that, it doesn't work." The exhibit, which opened to the public Saturday, will be on display through June 1998. Admission is free with a PennCard.