Corning is celebrating its 175th anniversary in 2026, including a big event in its namesake city July 22 where the company is headquartered. Here, we look back on the company’s earliest roots in Boston and Brooklyn, and how it eventually settled in Corning, where the company grew into the global powerhouse it is today.
Amory Houghton Sr., a risk taker and a dreamer, founded what later became Corning Inc. in 1851 by purchasing Cate & Philips, a small glassware company in Somerville, Mass.
The Houghton family came to America from Britain in 1635 and were involved in agriculture for generations in Lancaster, Massachusetts near Boston, said Michelle Cotton, an archivist and manager of the Department of Archives and Records Management at Corning Inc…