The founder of the Blenko Glass Company, William J. Blenko, was born in 1854 in London, England. By the age of 13 he was working in a  London glass factory, where he learned glassblowing. In 1893 he immigrated to the United States to Kokomo, Indiana to start the first US glasshouse to supply America with domestically produced mouth blown colored (Antique) sheet glass. By 1903 the company failed due largely to unfavorable economic conditions, and he moved back to England. Twice more (1909 and 1911) he tried to start a sheet glass business in the US, each time for various reason failing.

This period encompasses the company's founding and formative years, prior to the hiring of a Design Director. In 1921, with no employees or laborers, William J. Blenko established the Eureka Art Glass Company, in Milton WV. In 1923, William's 26 year old youngest son, William H. Blenko Sr., along with his wife Marion and two-year-old son William Jr. joined the company. By 1927 the company was doing well thanks to a high quality product and Bill's sales expertise. However, the 1929 Depression destroyed the market for stained glass, so in 1930 they introduced a tableware line to expand their market and survive the depression. In August of 1930 the company officially changed its name to the Blenko Glass Company.

During this period designs are largely basic, classical forms and adaptations thereof. No designs are definitively attributable to any particular person. The only noteworthy exception is the work of Carl Erickson, the foreman 1937-42, to whom several designs may be tentatively attributed including the "Heavy Swedish Type." All other forms were for the most part generated by a combination of the company's sales representatives, management and the senior finishers.

The hiring of the company's first Design Director, Winslow Anderson, in 1947 was a noteworthy event; at the time it was extremely forward thinking to employ a full time in-house designer. Of equal importance, Blenko made a clear decision to allow designers full and unlimited creative freedom.

The Historic Period includes the work of the company's first four Design Directors; Winslow Anderson, Wayne Husted, Joel Philip Myers and John Nickerson. Where Husted pioneered a Studio Glass aesthetic before the movement even began, Myers carried the torch as a significant and active founding member of the movement, while Nickerson was the first Design Director hired by Blenko with pre-existing knowledge of the Studio Glass movement.

The period concluded as the company's efforts were eclipsed by the Studio Glass movement and further hampered by the death of William H. Blenko Sr., the guiding force of the company.

The work of this period, covering three different designers, is defined by a more production-oriented output and, with few exceptions, lacking - for historical rather than creative reasons - the experimental possibilities and innovation of the earlier period. The most noteworthy work in this period was that of Hank Adams, an acclaimed Studio Glass artist. Blenko is still making stained glass, architectural glass and decorative wares today. The current President, Richard Blenko, is the 4th generation President of the company.

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