Details

Title

Westward Ho! Covered Butter Dish

Artist/Maker

Gillinder & Sons, Philadelphia, 1867–1930, manufacturer

Date

ca. 1870–1880

Medium

Pressed glass

Dimensions

9 x 7 1/8 x 7 1/8 inches

Credit

Gift of Mrs. William Vernon Skiles

Accession #

58.5000.75 a–b

Location

On View - Stent Family Wing, Level 2, Gallery 211

This pressed-glass butter dish was made to commemorate the 1876 Centennial. As America's expansion continued after the Civil War, glass manufacturers responded with patterns that represented events, popular culture, and everyday images from nature, politics, and literature. Westward Ho! was one of the most popular patterns to reflect the culture of American expansion. This type of inexpensive pattern glass was made almost entirely by machine, enabling companies to market thousands of patterns.