Turner Museum of Glass

The Turner Museum of Glass sits inside the Sir Robert Hadfield Building on the University of Sheffield campus. Its entrance opens from Portobello Street in South Yorkshire. The collection ranges from glass made in ancient Egypt and Rome to pieces by leading European and American makers. The strongest section covers the 1920s to the 1950s. Professor W. E. S. Turner founded the museum in 1943. Turner’s own research shaped the displays, and he wrote many papers on glass technology. One unusual exhibit is the glass-fibre wedding dress he gave his wife Helen Monro Turner in 1943. The matching shoes are also made of glass fibre. The dress is part of the BBC’s extended collection for A History of the World in 100 Objects. Visitors walk through rooms arranged by period and maker. Glass from Egypt and Rome stands beside 20th-century vases and sculptures. The glass-fibre dress hangs where light catches its threads. Labels explain how each piece was made and why it matters. The museum shows how glass has been shaped by science and art across centuries.