Welcome to the Morton D. Barker Paperweight Collection
The Morton D. Barker Paperweight Collection at the Illinois State Museum is a remarkably representative and prestigious collection of 252 glass objects, more than 200 of which are some of the finest examples of antique French paperweights of the Classic Period (1845 - 1865).
This Web site contains images of all the objects in the collection and descriptive captions for each image in the Gallery. The site also contains narrative text on topics such as the history of paperweights, manufacturers, and techniques.
The left-hand menu will take you to the various topics of text. There are also text links within each page that will give you pop-up images of examples or take you to subject- related pages. Use the back button or left-hand menu to return to the original page.
The image of a paperweight in the top left-hand corner of each page, is a randomly chosen paperweight from the collection. Each time you return to the page, a different image will be displayed.
There is a glossary that explains the meaning of the many specialized words for the tools and processes of glass making. A list of print and Web resources will give you more detailed information on many paperweight and glass topics.