Buechner, Thomas S., 1926-2010

Thomas S. Buechner, was appointed the founding director of The Corning Museum of Glass in 1950, six months before its public opening. Trained as an artist and working at the time as an exhibition designer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, he moved to Corning, developed a world-class glass collection and library, and led the institution to its public opening on May 19, 1951. Buechner established the Museum's academic journals, New Glass Review and The Journal of Glass Studies (both still published today) and curated the groundbreaking exhibition, Glass 59, that was the first to explore international works in contemporary glass. Buechner left the Museum in 1960 to become director of the Brooklyn Museum.

Buechner was hired by Corning Glass in 1971, where he served as president of the firm's Steuben Glass division from 1973 to 1982 and headed the Glass Museum there from 1973 to 1980.