During the late 1920s and early 1930s, Frederick Carder’s Steuben Division produced architectural glass for a variety of buildings—usually skyscrapers—for both interior and exterior applications. Architectural glass was used both for its beauty as well as for its functionality. The Frederick Carder Papers at the Rakow Research Library includes correspondence, contracts and costs, design drawings, marketing materials, and catalogs related to Steuben architectural glass. Joe will share the substantial amount of information on the glass at Rockefeller Plaza in New York City that seems to have gone unrecognized by history nearly a century later. This presentation will attempt to remedy that deficiency and shed light on the role that Carder and Steuben played in creating this large-scale work of public art.

Joe Schill is an archivist at the Rakow Research Library, where he began working in June 2019. Much of his job revolves around processing archival collections, creating finding aids, and managing the Museum’s web archiving program. Prior to becoming an archivist, Joe taught high school social studies for ten years. From 2011-2018, he renovated old houses while raising two children with his wife in Ithaca, New York. Joe is a strong believer in lifelong learning, having earned three master’s degrees over the last three decades, including an MSILS from the University at Buffalo (SUNY) in 2019.