Harvey Littleton

Harvey Littleton (June 14, 1922 – December 13, 2013) was an American glass artist and educator, one of the founders of the studio glass movement; he is often referred to as the "Father of the Studio Glass Movement".

Born in Corning, New York, he grew up in the shadow of Corning Glass Works, where his father headed Research and Development during the 1930s.

Expected by his father to enter the field of physics, Littleton instead chose a career in art, gaining recognition first as a ceramist and later as a glassblower and sculptor in glass.

After three semesters of physics, the pull of art proved stronger than his respect for his father's wishes, and, with sister Martha's encouragement he arranged to study at Cranbrook Academy of Art for the 1941 spring semester.

There he studied metalwork with Harry Bertoia and sculpture with Marshall Fredericks, and worked part-time as a studio assistant to the aging Carl Milles.

Dr. Littleton was not pleased by his son's decision.

Littleton enlisted Martha's aid in arriving at a compromise: Littleton would return to the University of Michigan that fall, to major in industrial design.

He also enrolled in a ceramics class, with Mary Chase Stratton

During the summers of 1941 and 1942 Littleton worked at Corning.

In summer 1942, working as a mold maker in the Vycor multiform project laboratory, he cast his first work in glass.

Using a neoclassic torso he had modeled in clay, he made a casting in white Vycor.

Following the Pearl Harbor attack, Littleton tried to volunteer in the Coast Guard, the Air Force, and the Marines, but was rejected because of his poor eyesight.

In the fall of 1942, he was drafted into the Army, interrupting his continued study.

He was assigned to the Signal Corps, and served in North Africa, France, and Italy.

Near the end of the war, he received a commendation for developing a decoding device.

In the latter capacity he was very influential, organizing the first glassblowing seminar aimed at the studio artist in 1962, on the grounds of the Toledo Museum of Art.

Imbued with the prevailing view at the time that glassblowing could only be done on the factory floor, separated from the designer at his desk, Littleton aimed to put it within the reach of the individual studio artist.

In his role as an educator, Littleton was an "... outspoken and eloquent advocate of university education in the arts."

He initiated the first hot glass program at an American university (the University of Wisconsin–Madison) and promoted the idea of glass as a course of study in university art departments in the United States.

Littleton's students went on to disseminate the study of glass art and establish other university-level hot glass programs throughout the U.S.

Littleton retired from teaching in 1977 to focus on his own art.

Exploring the inherent qualities of the medium, he worked in series with simple forms to draw attention to the complex interplay of transparent glass with multiple overlays of thin color.

While at Wisconsin, as an outgrowth of a workshop he taught in cold-working techniques for glass, Littleton began experimenting with printmaking from glass panes.

As an independent artist, his studio included space for printmaking, and he continued to explore and develop the techniques of vitreography.

Littleton worked as an independent glassblower and sculptor until chronic back problems forced him to abandon hot glass in 1990, and he continued his creative interest in vitreography well beyond that.

Harvey Kline Littleton was born in Corning, New York, the fourth offspring of Dr. Jesse T. Littleton Jr., and Bessie Cook Littleton.

His father was a physicist who had been recruited from the faculty at the University of Michigan to join the first research team at Corning Glass Works.

Director of Research at the time of Harvey's birth (and later a Vice President of Corning), Dr. Littleton is remembered today as the developer of Pyrex glassware and for his work on tempered glass.

Harvey Littleton's introduction to the world of glass began when he was six.

On Saturdays his father would take Harvey off his mother's hands for a few hours by bringing him to the laboratory.

There he was turned over to the laboratory stockman who entertained him or, at least, kept the little boy out of trouble.

When he was twelve, Harvey and his siblings were at the glassworks watching at the time of the failure of the first casting of the two-hundred inch mirror for the Hale Telescope at Palomar Observatory.

At home, the properties of glass and its manufacture were frequent topics at the family dinner-table.

Dr. Littleton was fascinated by glass and believed that the material had almost unlimited uses.

Littleton attended high school at Corning Free Academy.

His interest in art developed during this time, and he took life drawing and sculpture courses through an extension program at Elmira College.

When he was eighteen, Littleton enrolled at the University of Michigan to study physics.

His choice of major was influenced by his father, who wanted one of his children to follow him in his profession (Littleton's oldest sibling Martha was an industrial psychologist; his oldest brother Jesse chose medicine as a career; and his brother Joe became a Vice President of Corning's Technical Products Division).

According to Littleton, "I always thought I would be a physicist like my father".

While studying physics, Littleton also took sculpture classes with Avard Fairbanks at Michigan, which fueled his growing preference for art.