The New Bedford Museum of Glass plans to move from 61 Wamsutta St. to the Arnold Mansion at 42 County St., once home to James W. Rotch, a 19th-century key investor that launched a booming glass industry along New Bedford’s waterfront. The move will involve transporting more than 7,000 glass items.
When business boomed, nearly 1,200 people worked in the glass industry in New Bedford as it transitioned out of whaling, and it was named the art glass capital of the country for about 30 years, where beautiful, very high-end decorative art glass was developed.
This history and more are depicted through exhibits at the museum, which has glass dating from 500 B.C. through to the modern day, possibly the only glass museum in New England that has artefacts dating back that old.