Background
Edward Drummond Libbey was born on April 17, 1854 at Chelsea, Massachusetts, United States, the son of William L. and Julia (Miller) Libbey.
Edward Drummond Libbey was born on April 17, 1854 at Chelsea, Massachusetts, United States, the son of William L. and Julia (Miller) Libbey.
He received his education in Boston and later attended lectures at Boston University.
In 1874 Libbey entered the factory of the New England Glass Company, East Cambridge, Massachusetts, of which his father was general manager, and worked in all branches of it to learn every detail in the manufacture and marketing of glass. In 1883, upon the death of his father, who had bought the business some years before, he became sole proprietor.
In 1886, a strike by the workmen for higher wages, which conditions could not justify, made it necessary to close the plant permanently. Libbey then went to Toledo, Ohio, attracted by the ample supply of natural gas and good glass sand, and in 1888 began operations there under the name of the Libbey Glass Company. In 1893 he erected a building at the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, in which he operated a demonstration glass plant throughout the period of the fair. Becoming interested in the development of automatic machinery for the manufacture of table tumblers, the invention of Michael J. Owens, he organized the Toledo Glass Company (1894) and in the plant which was constructed for it carried on the manufacture of table tumblers until 1899, when the plant was acquired by the American Lamp Chimney Company of which Libbey was president. This company was soon consolidated with the Macbeth-Evans Glass Company of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and the Toledo plant operated as a branch factory.
In 1899 Owens developed a machine for blowing bottles, perhaps the most revolutionary contribution to the glass industry since the invention of the blowing iron. In 1903, the machine having been perfected, Libbey organized and became president of the Owens Bottle Machine Company (reorganized in 1919 as the Owens Bottle Company), which took an exclusive license from the Toledo Glass Company for the manufacture in the United States of the bottle machine and all kinds of bottles. The Owens European Bottle Machine Company was organized in 1905.
In 1912 Libbey purchased for the Toledo Glass Company the Colburn patents for the manufacture of sheet glass, and after the process had been further developed by Owens and the original inventor, he organized and became president in 1916 of the Libbey-Owens Sheet Glass Company, which purchased these patents and embarked upon the manufacture of sheet and plate glass, at Charleston, West Virginia.
Libbey was intensely interested in civic, philanthropic, and educational work. He served on the Toledo board of education and, as its president. He was also a member of the City Plan Commission. In company with other citizens, he organized, in 1901, the Toledo Museum of Art, of which he was president until his death. He made possible the erection of the first unit of the museum building, opened in 1912, and later gave an addition, dedicated in 1926, which more than doubled its size. He made frequent trips abroad and formed a collection of paintings, including work of Holbein, Hals, Rembrandt, Velasquez, De Hoog, Van Cleef, Reynolds, Gainsborough, and Raeburn, which he gave to the Toledo Museum.
Libbey was the founder of the Libbey Glass Company, the Owens Bottle Machine Company and the Libbey-Owens Sheet Glass Company. While on the board of education he began a notable building program. For many years he supplied scholarships through which the teachers of the public schools could continue their higher education, and by his will provided for the perpetual maintenance of a scholarship fund. He also presented to the Toledo Museum of Art, a collection of Egyptian antiquities and a unique collection of glass, and by bequest left it the bulk of his estate, providing funds for additions to its building, for the maintenance and operation of the Museum and its educational program, and for the acquisition of works of art for its permanent collections. In 1922, in recognition of his services to industry, commerce, and art, King Albert conferred upon him the Belgian Order of the Crown with the rank of Commander.
He advocated a policy of education as well as conservation, foreseeing for the Toledo Museum of Art a future in which it should take its place as an educational factor along with the public schools, colleges, and universities.
Libbey married Florence (Scott) Libbey in 1890.
