258 Early Academy Christmas and New Year Cards (1885-1892)

“Beloved companions, fill glasses with wine,
Vive l’Academie!
And drink to our Union in uses Divine.
Vive l’Academie!” (New Church Life 1911, 202; first stanza of song).

An early Academy of the New Church song, “Vive l’Academie” (long live the Academy), was often sung at Academy gatherings in the 1890s and early 1900s (see New Church Life 1900, 445). This French phrase also appeared on Christmas and New Year cards exchanged between Academy members. Examples of cards containing the phrase appear in a collection of holiday cards Continue reading » » » »

243 Bernice Stroh Sandstrom Nativity Set (c. 1937)

The first Nativity set made by Bernice Stroh Sandstrom (1910-2003) is in the New Church Collection of Glencairn Museum (see photos left and below, 10.XX.566A-I). Donated to the museum by her husband, the Rev. Erik Sandström, the set, consisting of eight handmade figures, was made by Mrs. Sandström for her family around the year 1937.

She went on to make more sets for her family over the years, as well as sets for many other families. These Nativity figures now feature prominently Continue reading » » » »

241 Stained Glass Christmas Window by Lawrence Saint (1919)

Since the early 1990s, Glencairn Museum has displayed a Lawrence Saint stained glass Christmas window during the Christmas season in Glencairn’s Upper Hall. This two-light four-panel window (see photo, left) was originally located in Bryn Athyn Cathedral, and was designed by Saint around the year 1919, when the main building of the Cathedral was dedicated.

Lawrence Bradford Saint (1885-1961), a stained glass artist known for his work on Washington’s National Cathedral, worked on the Bryn Athyn Cathedral project earlier in his career. During his time as a student at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, he won a Cresson Traveling Scholarship to Europe, where his fascination with and study of medieval stained glass began. He eventually produced a series of watercolor paintings of windows in French and English medieval churches, and was subsequently asked to provide the color plates for Hugh Arnold’s Stained Glass of the Middle Ages in England and France, published in 1913.

Saint operated his own stained glass studio in nearby Huntingdon Valley. In 1917 Raymond Pitcairn hired him to work on Bryn Athyn Cathedral, where he produced a number of windows. In 1922 Pitcairn sent Saint to England and France to make copies of medieval windows, including panels at Canterbury and Chartres Cathedral. He left the Bryn Athyn project to begin work on the National Cathedral in 1928.

  

The four panels of the Christmas window depict the following scenes (pictured here left to right): Continue reading » » » »