Washington National Cathedral Stained Glass Formulae Collection
Object Details
- Creator
- Saint, Lawrence B., 1885-1961
- Washington Cathedral
- Place
- Washington (D.C.)
- Occupation
- Stained glass artists
- Topic
- Glass, Colored
- Glass painting and staining -- United States
- Glass manufacture
- Provenance
- The collection was donated to the National Museum of History and Technology (now the National Museum of American History) by the Washington National Cathedral, through Richard T. Feller in 1977.
- Creator
- Saint, Lawrence B., 1885-1961
- Washington Cathedral
- See more items in
- Washington National Cathedral Stained Glass Formulae Collection
- Summary
- This collection consists of chemical formulae developed by Lawrence Saint for use in his stained glass work at the Washington National Cathedral. There are supporting samples, records, and notes.
- Biographical / Historical
- Lawrence B. Saint was born in Pittsburgh in 1885. The work he did with stained glass, especially filming (the process of making a work of stained glass, old or new, look as if it is from the Middle Ages), influenced glassmakers everywhere. At thirteen, Saint was employed in Goeddel's wallpaper store. While at Goeddel's, Saint made sketches which impressed J. Horace Ruby, a former Goeddel's employee. Saint then began working under Ruby at Ruby Brothers Stained Glass Company. Saint's chores in the studio were to grind paint, trace patterns, sweep the floors, and build fires in the pot-bellied stove. Saint worked in this studio for four years. He saved enough money to put himself through the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia. After art school, Saint was employed by the H. F. Petgen Company of Pittsburgh to design a large rose window for the Roman Catholic Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in East Liberty, Pennsylvania. It was a mosaic of color with symbols of the four evangelists of Christ. During his last year in art school, Saint met his future wife, Katherine Wright. Their honeymoon in Europe provided Saint time to study and copy medieval stained glass. Saint made at least three visits to Europe and collected sample glass from Chartres and other cathedrals. When Saint returned to the United States he designed and painted windows for eleven years under the direction of Raymond Pitcairn, promoter of medieval arts at Bryn Athyn Cathedral in Pennsylvania. During this period, Saint started to portray figures from life to record the faces of his generation. Between visits to Europe, Saint completed six windows in eleven years. Three were figure windows, three were two small roses, and one was a grisaille window. Grisaille is a style of monochromatic painting in shades of gray, used especially for the representation of relief sculpture, or to simulate one. After his work at Bryn Athyn, Saint worked out of his own stained glass studio. He then went to work for the Washington National Cathedral as head of its stained glass studio. He designed and executed fourteen windows for the Cathedral: the North Rose Window, nine choir aisle windows, and four others in the north transept aisles. Saint experimented with recapturing the reds, blues, and other vibrant colors achieved by medieval glass makers using formulae based on spectroscopic analyses of scraps of 13th century glass. While working for the Cathedral, a fire broke out in Saint's studio. Many windows and materials were destroyed including a window depicting Moses. Saint's most famous work for the Cathedral was the North Rose Window entitled, "The Last Judgment." This window cost $22,687 and took twelve men to create. Saint made his own glass and applied his own process for filming it. Upon completion, Saint's work was displayed at the Free Library of Philadelphia in 1957 and in other cities. Saint said, 'I trust that my material, made public, will lead others to improve on my work...".
- Extent
- 9.3 Cubic feet (29 boxes)
- Date
- 1926-1936
- Custodial History
- The collection was transferred to the Archives Center from the Division of Ceramics and Glass (now the Divsion of Home and Community Life) in 1984.
- Archival Repository
- Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Identifier
- NMAH.AC.0090
- Type
- Collection descriptions
- Archival materials
- Formulae, chemical
- Glass samples
- Citation
- Washington National Cathedral Stained Glass Formulae Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
- Arrangement
- This collection is divided into three series. Series 1, Formulae, 1927-1933 Series 2, Notes and Records, 1926-1936 Series 3, Glass Samples, 1927-1933
- Processing Information
- Processed by Robert S. Harding, archivist, Valerie Herman and Calli Ward, 1984; revised by Franklin A. Robinson, Jr., archives technician, December 2008.
- Rights
- Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Reproduction permission from Archives Center: reproduction fees may apply.
- Genre/Form
- Formulae, chemical
- Glass samples
- Scope and Contents
- This collection consists of 976 formulae developed by Lawrence Saint for making stained glass. A shoe box contains 3" x 5" index cards of the formulae. Included are duplicate formulae and some miscellaneous notes. There are also over eight hundred samples of glass for various formulae. Some of the formulae were missing when the collection was donated to the National Museum of American History. These are noted in the container list.
- Restrictions
- Collection is open for research but is stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Researchers must handle unprotected photographs with gloves. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
- Record ID
- ebl-1503512509299-1503512509304-0
- Metadata Usage
- CC0
