The First 20 Years of NCC: How It Began
by Evelyn M. Allen
[Reprinted from Issue No. 1, May 1973. Evelyn served for 6 years on the Board of Directors. She passed away in 1988.]
About three years ago, Charles Upton and John Wolfe, who are very avid Cambridge Glass Collectors, started talking NATIONAL CLUB. They began researching every means possible to get a complete history of the happenings of the Cambridge Glass plant and its origin. This is quite a feat to tackle, but they never seemed to "give up".
The two of them talked to many collectors, some encouraging and some feeling it could never be.
At a Columbus show in the Fall of '72, Charles walked into Ruth Forsythe's (Plain City, Ohio) booth and Ruth remarked - "When, Charlie, are you going to start a National Club?" This was the spark at the right moment. Charlie and John began to buzz around and find people as interested as they were.
Robert Coyle and I, of Newark, both offered to help all we could. With the distance between Cambridge and Newark, this still left the leg work to Charlie and John.
After several attempts for the four of us to meet, a day was decided - February 11. My husband, Harry, Bob and myself motored to the Upton home. Mary Alice (Charlie's wife) had fixed a very lavish dinner, which we ate with great delight. It was served on beautiful Cambridge Rosepoint dinner ware and the food matched it's eloquence - as Charles said - "A table befitting a King".
We spent all afternoon discussing, planning, and trying to do everything to please the majority.
The next trip was a meeting with twelve people whom Charlie and John had selected to constitute an eager Board of Directors.
The Constitution and by-laws were discussed and we were on our way. A fee of $10.00 per membership was established and all twelve directors eagerly paid their fee at the very first meeting, putting the National Club immediately in existence.
Ads have been placed in several Antique papers and newspapers. At the time of the writing, there are 53 members.