The Underappreciated Museum That Shows You A Side Of New Jersey You’ve Never Seen Before

New Jersey is home to some pretty incredible museums - Sterling Hill Mining Museum, Newark Museum, New Jersey State Museum, Liberty Science Center, Battleship New Jersey, Montclair Art Museum, and the Morris Museum, for starters. But it's not all about the big name museums, we have dozens of lesser-known gems - Liberty Hall Museum, the Museum of Early Trades and Crafts, the African American Heritage Museum of Southern New Jersey, and the Stickley Museum, to name a few. Why did I just list so many museums? Because I want you to look each of them up and plan a visit. I'm a bit of a museum maven and I enjoy sharing my favorites with you. Today, the focus is on the Heritage Glass Museum in Glassboro.

It's a little known fact that New Jersey (South Jersey, in particular) was once the heart of the glassblowing industry in America.

Glassmaking requires wood, sand, silica, and soda ash, all of which were abundantly available in South Jersey’s Pinelands.

The nation’s first successful glass factory was built in Millville in 1739. (Pictured is the Co-operative Flint Glass Factory in Pennsylvania some time during the late 1800s or early 1900s.)

Though the glassblowing industry is no longer booming in the Garden State, you can look back on our colorful past at the Heritage Glass Museum.

The museum includes examples of over 200 years of South Jersey glass. In addition to the gorgeous glass, you will find worker's tools and related information.

The Heritage Glass Museum is free to visit and open on Saturdays from 11 am - 2 pm, Wednesdays from noon - 3 pm, and on the fourth Sunday of each month from 1 pm - 4 pm. You can find it at: 25 High Street in Glassboro. Call (856) 881-7468 to confirm their hours. To discover another magnificent museum in New Jersey, click here.