One of The Most Successful Women Living In New York City In The 1880s Was A Glass Designer For The Famous Tiffany Studios
One of the most successful women living in New York City in the 1880s was doing magnificent work during a time when women were discouraged from working.
Clara Driscoll was a glass designer well known for her work at the famous Tiffany Studios in New York City.
Clara was born in Ohio in 1861. She and her younger sisters were encouraged to receive a formal education at a young age, and she attended the Western Reserve School of Design for Women after showing she had talent in art and design.
Clara briefly worked for a local furniture maker but then moved to New York City in 1888 to enroll in the Metropolitan Museum Art School. Yet, once she got there, she was hired by famous artist and designer Louis Comfort Tiffany to work at his Tiffany Glass Company.
Clara worked alongside other women at the Tiffany Glass Company, and they became known as the Tiffany Girls. Clara started designing some beautiful, exceptional items for the company, like her exquisite, colorful butterfly and dragonfly glass lamps.
Clara’s works were very successful at Tiffany Glass Company and sold for a lot of money. She soon became one of the most successful women employees in New York City and had a lot of brilliant work to show for it.
Due to unfortunate regulations and rules that stated engaged or married women were not allowed to work at the glass company, Clara had to stop working when she married her husband, Francis Driscoll. But after his passing in 1892, she went right back to work.
She continued working at Tiffany Glass Company, which was eventually renamed Tiffany Studios, until she married her second husband, Edward A. Booth, in 1909. By then, Clara began to suffer from headaches and poor eyesight, so she knew her time at the glass company was done. She worked with Tiffany Studios for an amazing 20 years.
Clara and her husband eventually settled in Florida, and she passed away in 1944 at 82.
Mihai Simonia – stock.adobe.com- illustrative purposes only
The Cleveland Museum of Art remains a huge advocate for Clara and her work decades after her passing, as they’ve recently dedicated an exhibit to her and the Tiffany Girls’ work.
In 2020, in the “Tiffany in Bloom: Stained Glass Lamps of Louis Comfort Tiffany” exhibit, Clara’s work and life story were shared with art lovers who may have never known her.
Did you know who Clara Driscoll was?
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