Clara Driscoll (Tiffany glass designer)
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Clara Driscoll (1861–1944) of Tallmadge, Ohio was director of the Tiffany Studios' Women's Glass Cutting Department (the "Tiffany Girls"), in New York City. They chose the colors and type of glass to be used in the studios' famous glass items. Before her arrival the lamps had a static and geometric look and feel. As the creative force behind the Tiffany lamp she was director, designer and crafter of the more than thirty Tiffany lamps produced by the company; among them the famous Wisteria, Dragonfly, Peony, and from all accounts her first — the Daffodil. Virtually nothing was known about Driscoll until quite recently. It had always been thought that Louis Comfort Tiffany was the chief designer behind the greatest of the Tiffany leaded lamps. Clara Driscoll was born Clara Pierce Wolcott on April 2, 1861. She lost her father at the age of 12. Unusual for that time, she, along with her equally bright and motivated three younger sisters, was encouraged to pursue a higher education. Clara showed a flair for art, and after attending design school in Cleveland and working for a local furniture maker, she moved to New York and enrolled at the then new Metropolitan Museum Art School. Her artistic potential was apparent and she was hired by the famed Tiffany Studios. She remained there, designing and directing the designs of lamps, mosaics, windows, and other decorative objects for more than 20 years. Driscoll's first husband, Frances Driscoll, died and she remained a widow until re-marrying in 1909, an event which ended her career at Tiffany, as married women were not allowed to work there. All records for Tiffany Studios were lost after it closed in the early 1930s. It was only through the combined efforts of Martin Eidelberg (professor emeritus of art history at Rutgers University), as well as Nina Gray, an independent scholar and former curator at the New-York Historical Society, and Margaret K. Hofer (curator of decorative arts, New-York Historical Society), that Clara Driscoll's involvement in designing Tiffany lamps was discovered. While doing research for a book on Tiffany at the Queens Historical Society, Nina Gray found the historically valuable letters written by Driscoll to her mother and sisters during the time she was employed at Tiffany. The New York Times quoted the curator, Nina Gray as saying: "They brought out two books and several boxes, all letters, and I think the first thing I read was about how she had designed a daffodil lamp. And I started squealing. At the top it said something like ‘Noon at Tiffany's,' so it was during her lunch hour. What do you do with something like that?" Martin Eidelberg had seen the correspondence independently and after comparing notes their conclusion was beyond doubt. It was Clara Driscoll and the "Tiffany Girls" who had created many of the Tiffany lamps originally attributed to Louis Comfort Tiffany and his staff of male designers.
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THANKS TO Shayne Davidson for supplying the bio.

AND THANKS TO Gone But Not Forgotten for other information on this memorial.
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