"Train" platter 1870 - 1900

Editor: Here we have an interesting object: an anonymous pressed-glass platter called "Train", probably made somewhere in the United States between 1870 and 1900. What catches my eye is its seeming ordinariness combined with this powerful image of technological progress. What do you make of this curious combination, looking at the symbols used? Curator: The "Train" platter… it presents a fascinating tension. The train, an icon of modernity, speed, and connection, is rendered in glass, a material associated with domesticity and perhaps fragility. Glass, often used for display and preservation, here encases the symbol of progress, almost freezing it in time. What might this signify? Is it a celebration, a subtle commentary, or both? Notice, too, how geometric designs reinforce the imagery and speak to the style of decorative arts, indicating industrial advances even while it harkens to a pastoral simplicity in the use of organic shapes. Editor: I suppose I hadn’t thought about how deliberate that combination might be. Curator: Consider the cultural memory embedded here. The train embodies a shift in how Americans perceived distance and time. By placing it on a common household object, the image enters daily life, a reminder of how technology was reshaping the world. The symbolism invites reflection: are we masters of our progress, or are we, too, being carried along by its momentum? Are the impressions meant to reflect nature being tamed, nature being reflected? Editor: That's really interesting. I didn't see it as an open question before. I just saw the train. It seems so obvious once you lay it out. Curator: Indeed. Such an object invites us to ponder the complex relationship between humanity, technology, and the everyday. What might people in the 1890s have considered it signified? Perhaps progress toward the future of civilization. What about now? What do we place on the platter for the future?