Seeing Glass in a New Light: An Exhibition of Uranium Glass

Explore the radiant glow of Uranium glass through a new exhibit on display at Oglebay Institute’s Glass Museum, located on the lower level of Carriage House Glass in Oglebay Park Resort.

Learn about the distinctive properties of uranium glassware, its rich history, and special allure through select pieces from the museum’s world-class collection of Wheeling-made glass.

Seeing Glass in a New Light: An Exhibition of Uranium Glass is on display in the Frey-Hires Gallery of Oglebay Institute’s Glass Museum now through January 4, 2026.

Hours and Admission

Oglebay Institute’s Glass Museum is open 10am-5pm daily through November. The Mansion Museum is temporarily closed for repairs.

Special Festival of Lights Hours (November 6, 2025-January 4, 2026)

10am-5pm Sunday through Thursday
10am-10pm Friday & Saturday
Christmas Eve: 10am-5pm
New Year’s Eve: 10am-5pm
Closed Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Day.

Admission to Oglebay Institute’s Glass Museum  is $10. Free for children 17 and under, accompanied by an adult.

About the Exhibit

Glass gets its colors – and is also made more clear – by adding different chemicals. The chemical recipe, or “batch,” can help identify glass, how it was made and even how old it is. Historically, manganese was used to clarify and remove impurities from the glass and make it appear colorless, while uranium was added to create yellow and green colors.

Almost from its origins glass has incorporated manganese as a decolorizer. Referred to as the “glassmaker’s soap” it was thought to “scrub” the impurities and make the glass clear. It was a mainstay in glass production for centuries until World War I when Germany, the main supplier of manganese, cut off trade with the United States. With the shortage, glassmakers substituted selenium as a clarifier.

Uranium glass is a blanket term for any glass containing uranium. Most well-known is “vaseline glass” that has a distinctive yellow color and was historically called “canary glass.” The manufacture of uranium glass dropped dramatically in the 1940s during World War II when the US government confiscated uranium supplies for the Manhattan Project.

The easiest way to detect manganese or uranium content is to look at the glass under UV or “black light.” Pre-WWI glass that contains manganese will glow a faint yellow. Uranium glass will glow bright green. The brightness of the color will depend on the uranium content.

While uranium glass is radioactive the level of radioactivity is very low with most pieces containing trace amounts up to 2%. A report published by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 2001 stated that uranium glass is considered safer than household electronics.

Today, a black light is the tool of both scholars and collectors. While often used to detect the presence of manganese and date pre-WWI glass, as well as to identify authentic uranium glass, it can detect the presence of other chemicals by producing a glowing light in a multitude of colors and levels of intensity.