Barbara Floyd Glass In The Glass City

Barbara Floyd is the author of The Glass City: Toledo and The Industry That Built It, published by the University of Michigan Press in 2015.  The book details the history of the glass industry from 1888 when Edward Drummond Libbey brought his company to Toledo to the current day.
In 2017, she retired from her faculty position at the University of Toledo after 31 years, where she was the University Archivist and Director of the Ward M. Canaday Center for Special Collections.  She is the author of six books and numerous articles on aspects of Toledo’s history. 
She is currently researching and writing the 150th-anniversary history of the University of Toledo, to be published in 2022.  She also teaches a course in Toledo history for the UT Department of History. She holds a B.A. in Journalism, an M.A. in American History and a Master of Public Administration degree, all from the University of Toledo.  In addition to her work for several community organizations, she is on the board of the Libbey House Foundation, which seeks to preserve the home of Edward Drummond Libbey, the founder of Toledo’s glass industry.
Barbara Floyd’s talk will trace the details of how all four of Toledo’s Glass manufacturers contributed to the successful outcome of World War II by innovating to meet the needs of the country and help win the war. Barbara has lived in Old Orchard for the past 25 years.  She and her husband Bill also own an 80-year old log cabin in Michigan, which they have been restoring for the past three years, and where they spend much of their summers.