Review of Dragonflies of Glass

The Story of Clara Driscoll and the Tiffany Girls

A TRUE TALE WITH

A CHERRY ON TOP

Abrams Books for Young Readers

(pub. 2.11.2025)

48 pages

Ages 6 - 9

Author: Susan Goldman Rubin

   Illustrator: Susanna Chapman

Character: Clara Driscoll

Overview:

" In the mid-nineteenth century, most women who weren’t raising families became teachers or nurses. But Clara Driscoll longed to be an artist, drawing inspiration from nature: from every flower, weed, dragonfly, and even cobweb, on her family’s farm.

In 1888, Clara was hired at the renowned Tiffany Glass Company, where Mr. Louis Comfort Tiffany was known for creating gorgeous stained-glass windows for churches, theaters, and libraries. Impressed by her talent at choosing and cutting glass, Mr. Tiffany eventually put Clara in charge of her own staff of 35 women designers.

These “Tiffany Girls” sketched intricate patterns, chose dazzling colors and precise shapes, and carefully soldered and placed each piece of glass to create stunning lamps, murals, windows, vases, and clocks. Yet their names weren’t always credited on the finished pieces, and when Clara designed the “Wisteria” lamp that would become Tiffany Studios’ most famous, everyone assumed that Mr. Tiffany had designed it.

Today, Clara Driscoll‘s work lives on in museums, galleries, and private collections around the world. Dragonflies of Glass celebrates the innovation, determination, and ambition of the unsung women behind many of Tiffany Studios’ masterpieces."

Tantalizing taste:

"For another pattern, she remembered cobwebs and apple blossoms from the Ohio farm. City flowers inspired her too. In the spring, Clara thrilled at tulips blooming in the park, and she and her Tiffany Girls turned all her ideas into beautiful leaded glass lamps.

And something more: Susan Goldman Rubin, shared in the Author's Note: "For over one hundred years, Clara Driscoll's name remained unknown as the genius who designed Tiffany Studio's most beloved glass lamps, as well as their 'fancy goods.' Her name was revealed in 2005 when scholars discovered her letters to her family... Here was a woman artist I didn't know and a detective story all rolled into one!"

Susanna Chapman explained in the Artist's Note: "Clara Driscoll's beautiful glass designs are otherworldly to me, but I felt a close connection to her 'round robin' letters...I felt so strongly about this aspect of the story that I gave it a storyline all its own in the lower margins."