Rare and historic crystal flutes are housed at the Library of Congress, and members of the CUA community are helping to preserve them.
When he began applying for summer internships last fall, Catholic University junior William Sullivan, an architecture major from Brookeville, Md., knew he wanted to do something unique. After spending time exploring the Library of Congress’s cavernous galleries and priceless works of art, he decided he’d also like to work in a place that inspired him.
“This is one of the most beautiful buildings in the city inside and out,” said Sullivan. “I’m all about the environment I work in, so I thought, ‘Why not the Library of Congress?’ It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
Sullivan was delighted to find that his summer fellowship at the library would allow him to work closely with a national treasure — the Madison Flute, a rare crystal glass flute that was once owned by President James Madison. Manufactured in 1813 by Parisian artisan Claude Laurent, the flute is one of approximately 140 like instruments in the world — 18 of which are owned by the Library of Congress.
Led by two Library of Congress employees — Lynn Brostoff, a conservation scientist, and Carol Lynn Ward-Bamford, curator of the library’s musical instrument collection — Sullivan spent his summer as a Library of Congress junior fellow, delving deep into the history and science behind the Laurent glass flutes, which are known for their awe-inspiring beauty and intricate Craftsmanship.
“There’s nothing like them ever made again. People can’t figure out how they were made,” Sullivan said. “These are true feats of engineering.”
As if working with some of the top musical instrument historians and conservation scientists in the country wasn’t exciting enough for this architecture student, Sullivan was surprised to find that he would also be collaborating with renowned scientists from his own university. Researchers from Catholic University’s Vitreous State Laboratory (VSL) are also helping to study the crystal flutes. For years VSL has been at the forefront of research in managing nuclear waste through a process called vitrification, which encases the materials in glass. But the lab’s interests focus on the study of glass in all its forms.
Together the team worked to better understand the unique methods Laurent used to make the flutes — a process which has never been replicated. By studying how the flutes were made, the Library of Congress team hopes to discover better methods of preserving the instruments so they can be enjoyed by library visitors and researchers for years to come.
Crafted as luxury items with varying colors of glass, gold or silver keys, and gemstone accents, Laurent’s crystal and glass flutes were once owned by emperors and kings such as Emperor Napoleon I of France, King Louis Napoleon of Holland, King Joseph Bonaparte of Spain, and Emperor Franz I of Austria. They are scattered all over the world, but the Library of Congress houses the world’s largest single collection of Laurent flutes, thanks to the generous donation of American collector Dayton C. Miller in 1941.
Miller, a scientist who earned his doctorate in astronomy from Princeton University and spent his career teaching physics, was a dedicated music lover and flautist. He gradually amassed what would become the world’s largest collection of flutes and flute-related objects, including the Madison Flute.
Because of his love for science and collecting, Miller chose to donate the collection to the Library of Congress. According to Ward-Bamford, Miller’s donation included more than 1,500 flutes, 3,000 books on the flute, 10,000 pieces of flute music, 1,000 pieces of artwork depicting the flute, and thousands of photographs.
Today, the Madison Flute is on display in the Whittall Pavilion, a drawing room within the library that also houses five Stradivarius violins, Siamese-style folk instruments dating to the 1600s, and an original score written by Mozart. The other flutes are stored in a climate- and humidity-controlled vault, where they are used primarily for research.
As the years pass, a big concern is ensuring the flutes are preserved as well as possible. The first step in planning preservation efforts is determining what kinds of glass are included in each flute. After researching the flutes on their own, Brostoff and Ward-Bamford reached out to VSL for help with further analysis. When Laurent first made the flutes, they were often described as crystal, or leaded glass. After looking more closely at the flutes this summer, Brostoff and the VSL scientists determined those descriptions weren’t entirely accurate.
“What we accomplished with that analysis was determining that only two of our 18 flutes are leaded glass, thus qualifying as what we commonly call crystal,” said Brostoff. “That was the big surprise because we thought they were all going to be leaded glass. Basically the rest were a different type of glass called potash glass, so called because it has a lot of potassium in it, which makes the glass inherently unstable, unfortunately.”
Using instrumentation at VSL, the research team hopes to further study how the flutes were made and the relationship between their composition and stability. Because the flutes are so fragile, it is nearly impossible to take samples of glass without damaging the instruments.
“It’s very exciting to be involved in something with this historical twist and these unique objects,” said VSL director and physics professor Ian Pegg. “The challenges associated with this become, how do you analyze and learn about the material when you can only get the tiniest sample of the material or none at all? So far, we’ve obtained a little piece of glass about three times the width of a human hair. That’s what we’ve got to work with to determine the composition of the glass, which can tell us how high the temperature would have had to be to melt the glass and the types of materials used to make it.”
Once the composition of the glass is determined, the VSL scientists plan to reproduce a sample of the glass to study its aging process. Pegg believes the flutes show signs of what is called crizzling, whereby condensation clouds the glass over time. He and his team, which includes Isabelle Muller and Rev. Andrew Buechele, hope this research will clarify causes of the deterioration and measures that can be taken to control the crizzling process.
“As they’re aging, the flutes are growing a kind of a cloudy coating on the surface, which is related to the humidity in the air,” Pegg said. “It can actually cause the glass to crack, so part of this is a preservation effort to understand the process and how best to protect them.”
For much of the summer, Sullivan — along with his research partner, junior fellow Dorie Klein, a sophomore at Smith College in Northampton, Mass. — helped log data on the climate around the flutes by measuring the humidity and temperature levels. Once the research is complete, Brostoff and Ward-Bamford will use the findings to build new housing for the flutes that will be better suited for their preservation.
Sullivan and Klein also executed extensive historical research on the flutes, performed X-ray fluorescent analysis, and did exhaustive research into organic glass chemistry to learn about the nature of glass aging and preservation methods being used around the world, said Sullivan.
“The point of our study is to find out how we can keep these around for the next generations,” Brostoff said. “We’re also studying the flutes historically and technically at the same time to better understand every aspect of them and add to their historical value.”
Though his internship was not directly related to his major, Sullivan said he found his summer as a junior fellow rewarding. The son of two biologists, he felt comfortable in the preservation lab and enjoyed the research. He also believes his newfound education about glass will help him as an architect.
“Architecture is one of those fields where the more you know, the better experience you’re going to have and the better your work is going to be,” Sullivan said. “Now I know the chemistry of glass and the impact of its environment. Understanding glass aging is important as an architect because you need to consider whether you want your building to show age. Part of becoming a good architect is having that understanding of every little thing and really being a creator of a whole experience, from the doorknob to the roof.