MSV - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Glass - Glen Burnie Foundation Trustee
Job Titles:
- Glass - Glen Burnie Foundation Trustee
Job Titles:
- Glass - Glen Burnie Foundation Trustee
Job Titles:
- Glass - Glen Burnie Foundation Trustee
The Wood and Glass families are associated with the site's historic properties, and are representative of many settlers who came to the Valley in the 1700s.
The Anglo-Virginian Wood Family traces its Valley history to James Wood. He surveyed, claimed, and, with his wife, Mary, lived on land in the northern Shenandoah Valley in the early 1700s, creating an estate that utilized enslaved labor. Wood also donated portions of his land to establish the city of Winchester in 1744.
The Scots-Irish Glass Family was among the many Scots-Irish immigrants who left the north of Ireland in the 1700s and came to the Valley in search of a better life. This family's Valley story begins with Samuel and Mary Glass, who moved here in the 1730s. The Wood and Glass families became linked with the marriage in 1832 of "Kitty" Wood (James Wood's granddaughter) and Thomas Glass.
Job Titles:
- Glass - Glen Burnie Foundation Trustee
MSV benefactor Julian Wood Glass Jr. was a descendent of Mary and James Wood, who settled the site now called Glen Burnie in the late 1730s and founded the city of Winchester-then called Frederick Town-in 1744. Julian and his half-sister, Sunny, grew up in Nowata, Oklahoma, where their father had moved from Winchester and achieved financial success in the oil industry. The Glass family enjoyed a gracious lifestyle that exposed Julian to European travel and the arts.
As a young boy, Julian saved his allowance to buy art. This collecting passion continued throughout his life. He eventually amassed a significant collection of English and American paintings and decorative arts. He displayed his collection in his homes in Oklahoma and New York, as well as in Glen Burnie, which he acquired in the 1950s. A gay man, Julian Glass at the time was in a committed relationship with R. Lee Taylor, whom he met in New York City in 1947. In the late 1950s, Julian, aided by Lee, undertook an extensive renovation of the Glen Burnie House, which by then was in serious disrepair. The couple turned the house into a showplace and surrounded it with six acres of formal gardens.
The men's relationship dissolved in the 1970s. However, Julian continued to use Glen Burnie as a retreat in which to entertain. Lee lived in a small apartment in the house and managed the site. Prior to his death in 1992, Julian established the Glass-Glen Burnie Foundation to assure that his collection, Glen Burnie, and nearby Rose Hill-the Glass ancestral homestead-would be preserved for public enjoyment. The Glen Burnie Historic House and Gardens opened in 1997, with Lee Taylor as curator of gardens until his death in 2000. In 2005, the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley opened on the site, and today it presents Julian's impressive collection through changing exhibitions on a variety of topics. On view now through March 2, 2024, the exhibition 123 - I love you offers a glimpse into Julian's world and the romantic relationships that influenced his life and collection. More than 50 objects-including photographs, letters, a kilt and costume worn by Glass, holiday ornaments made by Lee Taylor, and drawings by British artist Duncan Grant (1885-1978)-are on view in the display.
Julian Wood Glass Jr.'s remains are buried in the Glass family cemetery in Nowata, Oklahoma.
Born on a Tennessee farm, R. Lee Taylor served in the U.S. Army during World War II. He moved to New York City after that, and there in 1947, he met Julian Wood Glass Jr. This began a 20-year relationship between the two gay men. In 1955, when Julian Wood Glass Jr. acquired his ancestral home, Glen Burnie, Lee aided in its extensive renovation. He also helped research the fine and decorative arts that Julian was collecting. By 1960, Lee had moved into the Glen Burnie House on a full-time basis to manage the site and create its surrounding gardens.
The relationship between Lee and Julian dissolved in the 1970s. However, Lee continued to live in the Glen Burnie House and serve as site manager. Julian divided his time between his homes in Oklahoma, New York, and Glen Burnie, in which he enjoyed entertaining family and friends. During those times, the relationship between the two men was strained, but their mutual regard for the house and gardens allowed the arrangement to work. Just before Julian's death in 1992, the two men reconciled. The site opened as a museum five years later, with Lee Taylor then serving as curator of gardens and continuing to live in the upstairs section of the house.
Beginning in the late 1970s, during the winter months Lee Taylor began creating a collection of miniature houses and rooms that were furnished in exact detail. Eventually he had 14 houses and rooms, furnished with some 4,000 exquisite objects that represented more than 70 of the leading miniaturists of the day. R. Lee Taylor died in 2000, and his will bequeathed this miniatures collection to the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley. Today it is on permanent display in the R. Lee Taylor Miniatures Gallery. Many believe that Lee's miniature of the Glen Burnie House-on view in the Visitor Center in the Museum gardens-is the masterpiece of his collection.
On view now through March 2, 2024, the exhibition 123 - I love you offers a glimpse into Julian Wood Glass Jr.'s world and the romantic relationships that influenced his life and collection. More than 50 objects-including photographs, letters, holiday ornaments made by Lee Taylor, and drawings by British artist Duncan Grant (1885-1978)-are on view in the display.
Lee Taylor's ashes are interred in a wall of the Glen Burnie Family Cemetery.
Job Titles:
- Glass - Glen Burnie Foundation Trustee