Martin Eidelberg

Martin Eidelberg
Born	Martin Eidelberg
Nationality	American
Occupation	Art historian, curator
Years active	38+
Employer	Rutgers
Known for	Tiffany scholarship ceramic art
Title	Professor Emeritus of Art History

Martin Eidelberg is a prominent American professor emeritus of art history at Rutgers University and expert on art pottery and Tiffany glass. He is notable for discovering that many famous floral lamp designs were not made by Louis Comfort Tiffany personally but by an underpaid and unrecognized woman designer named Clara Driscoll.^[1]

Discovery

Eidelberg found a "cache of letters that Driscoll had written to her mother and sisters back in Ohio" in either 2006 or 2007; it led to new research about the famous Tiffany lamps.^[2] Eidelberg was quoted in 2007 in The New York Times as saying "I think Tiffany would have died" if information had leaked out that Driscoll was the real designer of the famous lamps.^[1][3][4]

Eidelberg's discovery led to an exhibition at the New-York Historical Society which garnered intense media attention.^[1][2] The evidence pointed to the conclusion that Driscoll was the "hidden creative force behind a legendary object in the history of American decorative arts: the Tiffany lamp."^[1][3]

The letters offered a new inside view of the workings of the studios, according to one account.^[5][6][7] Driscoll had been paid only $35 a week which was "good money" at the turn of the century but small compared to the value of the lamps today.^[4] The Driscoll letters revealed the "inner workings of Tiffany Studios" and exposed more about the practice of gender segregation at the Tiffany firm.^[5] Relations between the unionized men and the women were "not always friendly."^[5] Women had to leave if they married.^[5] And company literature refused to acknowledge designers other than Tiffany himself played a role in the artistic glasswork. Eidelberg's detective work led to a well-publicized exhibit called A New Light on Tiffany which revealed "a new understanding of the techniques and procedures used to produce the extraordinary objects that made Tiffany such an exalted name in American design."^[1] There was a report that the story about Clara Driscoll and her "Tiffany Girls" was being made into a film.^[8] Later, there was a traveling exhibition shown in towns including Allentown, Pennsylvania in autumn 2007.^[4][8][9]

Eidelberg has had a long career in art history prior to the Tiffany discovery. He taught thirty-eight years at Rutgers.^[10] In 1987, Eidelberg wrote what one reviewer called a "handsome, graphically arresting catalogue" entitled From Our Native Clay which traces the history of the art-pottery movement.^[11] In 1989, he curated a show on George E. Ohr, a "wizard at the potter's wheel who made witty, frequently erotic paper-thin vessels in Biloxi, Miss.."^[12] He studied Antoine Watteau and eighteenth-century French painting.^[13] He has also written about artisans such as William H. Grueby, Artus van Briggle, Adelaide Alsop Robineau, S. Bing, and Edward Colonna.^[13] In 2009, Eidelberg was Professor Emeritus of Art History at Rutgers University.^[14] In 2010 he co-curated the exhibition "Die Jugend der Moderne-Jugendstil und Art Nouveau aus Muenchner Privatbesitz" in the Museum Villa Stuck in Munich, Germany

Publications (author or co-author)

• The Arts and Crafts Movement in America, 1876-1916^[13]
• Masterworks of Louis Comfort Tiffany (1989)^[13]
• Behind the Scenes of Tiffany Glassmaking (2001)^[13]
• The Lamps of Louis C. Tiffany (2005)^[13]
• A New light on Tiffany, Clara Driscoll and the Tiffany Girls (2007)^[13]
• Tiffany Favrile Glass and the Quest of Beauty (2007)^[13]
• Beauty in Common Things, American Arts and Crafts Pottery from the Two Red Roses Foundation^[13]

See also

• Clara Driscoll
• Tiffany lamp

External links

• Rutgers newsletter 2002

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e} JEFFREY KASTNER (February 25, 2007). "Out of Tiffany’s Shadow, a Woman of Light". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/25/arts/design/25kast.html?pagewanted=print. Retrieved 2009-11-16. "He was co-curator of the exhibition ... and the historical society’s curator of decorative arts, Margaret K. Hofer." 
2. ^ ^{a b} Vivian Goodman (January 14, 2007). "Exhibition Honors Woman Behind the Tiffany Lamp". National Public Radio. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6854160. Retrieved 2009-12-01. "Martin Eidelberg, professor emeritus of art history at Rutgers University, recently discovered a cache of letters that Driscoll had written to her mother and sisters back in Ohio. Based on those letters, Eidelberg and his co-curators at the New-York Historical Society are creating a groundbreaking exhibition featuring 50 Tiffany lamps and exposing the role that Clara Driscoll played in the lamps' design." 
3. ^ ^{a b} Jeffrey Kastner (February 26, 2007). "Clara Driscoll, one of the guiding lights behind Tiffany's success". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/26/arts/26iht-tiff.html. Retrieved 2009-11-16. ""I think Tiffany would have died" if word had gotten out that Driscoll designed some of his most famous lamps, said Martin Eidelberg, professor emeritus of art history at Rutgers University." 
4. ^ ^{a b c} Caitlin A. Johnson (April 15, 2007). "Tiffany Glass Never Goes Out Of Style". CBS News.com. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/04/15/sunday/main2685085.shtml. Retrieved 2009-11-16. 
5. ^ ^{a b c d} KATE TAYLOR (February 13, 2007). "Tiffany's Secret Is Over". New York Sun. http://www.nysun.com/arts/tiffanys-secret-is-over/48495/. Retrieved 2009-11-16. "The exhibition was made possible by the discovery of Driscoll's letters by two of the show's curators, an emeritus professor of art history at Rutgers University, Martin Eidelberg." 
6. ^ "A New Light on Tiffany". New-York Historical Society. February 28, 2007. https://www.nyhistory.org/web/default.php?section=whats_new&page=society_detail&id=20. Retrieved 2009-11-16. "On February 28, the New-York Historical Society held a reception and private viewing of the groundbreaking exhibition A New Light on Tiffany. The event was hosted by N-YHS President and CEO, Louise Mirrer, Director of the Museum, Linda Ferber, and Director of the Library Jean Ashton. A tour was led by curators ... Martin Eidelberg." 
7. ^ Staff writer (April 7, 2006). "Spare Times". New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9401E1D61030F934A35757C0A9609C8B63. Retrieved 2009-11-16. "'THE GENIUS OF LOUIS COMFORT TIFFANY'" 
8. ^ ^{a b} "QHS Manuscripts Inspire N-YHS Exhibition". Queens Historical Society News. August 2007. http://www.queenshistoricalsociety.org/news.html. Retrieved 2009-11-16. 
9. ^ "Art Nouveau Autumn at the Allentown Art Museum". Art Knowledge News. October 7, 2007. http://www.artknowledgenews.com/Alphonse_Mucha_Art_Nouveau_Autumn.html. Retrieved 2009-11-16. "“Tiffany by Design” was organized by The Neustadt Collection of Tiffany Glass, Long Island City, New York." ^{[dead link]}
10. ^ Martin Eidelberg (2002). "Newsletter 2002". Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences–Department of Art History. http://arthistory.rutgers.edu/events/newsletter/2002/newsLtrRetireEidel.php. Retrieved 2009-12-01. "My aim, after thirty-eight years of teaching at Rutgers, is to free my schedule so that I can pursue fulltime my calling as an art historian.–Martin Eidelberg" 
11. ^ Rita Reif (August 14, 1987). "On Loan At Auction Galleries". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1987/08/14/arts/on-loan-at-auction-galleries.html. Retrieved 2009-12-01. "Fortunately, there is a handsome, graphically arresting catalogue, From Our Native Clay, edited by Martin Eidelberg, professor of art and architecture at Rutgers ($50 in hard cover, $40 in soft cover). The essay in the catalogue by Robert A. Ellison Jr. traces the history of the art-pottery movement..." 
12. ^ Rita Reif (September 24, 1989). "ANTIQUES; A Potter Who Found Art in the Mississippi Mud". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1989/09/24/arts/antiques-a-potter-who-found-art-in-the-mississippi-mud.html. Retrieved 2009-12-01. "Organized by the guest curator Martin Eidelberg, a professor of art history at Rutgers University, the show will remain through Jan. 9 and then visit Washington, New Orleans, Pittsburgh and Syracuse, N. Y." 
13. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i} "Martin Eidelberg–Professor Emeritus of Art History, Rutgers University". Rollins College. 2009-12-01. http://tars.rollins.edu/wpi/eidelberg.shtml. Retrieved 2009-12-01. "Dr. Eidelberg is especially known for his studies on Louis C. Tiffany’s glass, ceramics, and lamps, and is the author or co-author of several works: Masterworks of Louis Comfort Tiffany (1989), Behind the Scenes of Tiffany Glassmaking (2001), The Lamps of Louis C. Tiffany (2005), A New light on Tiffany, Clara Driscoll and the Tiffany Girls (2007), and Tiffany Favrile Glass and the Quest of Beauty (2007)." ^{[dead link]}
14. ^ "Edmond Lachenal and His Legacy". Hudson Hills. 2008-02. http://www.hudsonhills.com/title_detail/252/3/. Retrieved 2009-12-01. "Martin Eidelberg is Professor Emeritus of Art History at Rutgers University." 

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