Number 1, 2020

Glencairn Museum’s eleventh annual World Nativities exhibition presents dozens of three-dimensional Nativity scenes collected from many different cultures and communities around the globe. The goal of the exhibition is to show the universal appeal of the Nativity story, and how individuals around the world seek to give it relevance by relating it to their own spiritual, intellectual, cultural, or regional environments.

Number 11, 2019

This holiday season the Moravian Historical Society in Nazareth, Pennsylvania, has loaned an antique Moravian Christmas “putz” (Nativity scene) made by folk artist Jennie Trein (1879-1977) to Glencairn’s World Nativities exhibition.

Number 12, 2018

This year’s World Nativities exhibition features Nativity Maker’s Workshop, an extremely detailed miniature diorama created by R. Michael Palan. In this issue of Glencairn Museum News, Michael talks to us about his work, and we interview both Michael and Karen on video in the living room of their home in Bridgewater, New Jersey.

Number 11, 2018

This issue of Glencairn Museum News features five artists whose works are included in this year's World Nativities exhibition: Christina Orthwein (Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania), Nancy Schnarr-Bruell (Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania), Jeronimo Lozano (Peeru/Salt Lake City, Utah), Sabinita López Ortiz (Córdova, New Mexico), and Carmen Gutierrez Vazquez (San Miguel Aguasuelos, Veracruz-Mexico).

Number 12, 2017

During the holiday season a life-size oil painting by Bryn Athyn artist Edwin Herder depicting the Adoration of the Shepherds (Luke 2:15-20) hangs above the fireplace in Glencairn’s Upper Hall. The painting is based on an illustration in The Christ Child, a 1931 children’s book by Maud and Miska Petersham.

Number 11, 2017

This year Glencairn Museum is featuring two exhibitions during the holiday season. Our ninth annual World Nativities exhibition presents 40 three-dimensional Nativity scenes, collected from 20 countries around the world. Another exhibition, Do You See What I See? Imagery in Nativity Scenes, explores the origins of the various elements that make up a Nativity scene. And Glencairn’s guided “Christmas in the Castle” tour answers the question, “How do you celebrate Christmas in a 20th-century castle?” 

Number 1, 2017

Epiphany, sometimes known as Three Kings’ Day (January 6), celebrates the arrival of the Magi—also known as the Wise Men—in Bethlehem to see the Christ Child. In this issue of Glencairn Museum News we examine how artisans from around the world have represented the Magi in Glencairn’s World Nativities exhibition.

Number 11, 2016

The tradition of the Presepio, which has been called "the translation of the Bible into Neapolitan dialect,” represents daily life in 18th-century Naples, a bustling port city. The figures and structures in this Presepio were collected over a period of more than thirty years by the late Elizabeth Anne Evans of Bucks County during her annual trips to Naples.

Number 12, 2015

This year Glencairn Museum is featuring two exhibitions during the holiday season. Christmas Traditions in Many Lands reveals how Christmas was celebrated in a variety of European countries during the 19th and 20th centuries. It features objects and images from the collection of the National Christmas Center and Museum. Our seventh annual World Nativities exhibition presents 45 three-dimensional Nativity scenes, collected from around the world.

Number 11, 2015

This year Glencairn is featuring two exhibitions during the holiday season. As part of the seventh annual World Nativities exhibition, Glencairn is presenting a unique creation by Navidad Nativities of Bucks County, PA. This custom Nativity setting, with stunning interior lighting, was inspired by the art and architecture of Bryn Athyn Cathedral and Glencairn. The human and animal figures were hand carved in wood and dressed in starched fabric by Original Heide, a family business in the Italian Alps. The second exhibition, Christmas Traditions in Many Lands, reveals how Christmas was celebrated in a variety of European countries during the 19th and 20th centuries, and features objects and images from the collection of the National Christmas Center and Museum in Lancaster, PA.

Number 11, 2014

For the second year in a row, Glencairn is privileged to debut the work of Karen Loccisano and R. Michael Palan, a husband-and-wife team of professional artists from Westchester County, New York. Visitors to Glencairn’s World Nativities exhibition in 2013 may remember their highly detailed American Presepio Nativity scene, which was unveiled in November of that year. They are now working on a Flemish Nativity. A second exhibition will also be offered this year. A Century of Santa: Images of Santa Claus in the 1800s presents the early history of Santa Claus in America, using rare magazine illustrations, store advertising, and children’s storybooks from the collection of the National Christmas Center and Museum in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. 

Number 12, 2013

R. Michael Palan and Karen Loccisano, a husband-and-wife team of professional artists from New York, have spent the last two years creating their own interpretation of an Italian Presepio (Nativity scene). It was completed just two weeks ago, and is having its first public showing at Glencairn’s World Nativities exhibition.

Number 11, 2013

This year for Glencairn’s annual exhibition, Follow the Star: World Nativities, the Museum has exchanged several dozen crèches in our permanent holdings with the famous collection of Mepkin Abbey, a community of Roman Catholic Trappist monks in South Carolina. The 15-piece, hammered-copper Nativity pictured in this photograph was created over a period of several years by Vermont artist Mary Eldredge for the abbey’s annual Crèche Festival. According to the artist, “I have tried to create an experience of joy and wonder and awe at the birth of God as man, the dawn of our salvation, in the gestures of the various figures of the crèche” (as quoted in Mepkin Abbey’s 2012 book, Finding Bethlehem: A Global Journey through the Mepkin Abbey Creche Festival).

Number 12, 2012

Egypt figures prominently in one of the biblical accounts of the Nativity. The Gospel of Matthew (2:13-15) describes how an angel appeared to Joseph in a dream, warning him to take Jesus and Mary to Egypt to escape the jealous Herod, who wanted to kill the child. The Coptic Orthodox Church, which is centered in Egypt, has always given this part of the Christmas story special attention. The Flight into Egypt inspired several Coptic legends, and a number of churches and shrines throughout Egypt mark places where the Holy Family stayed. This terracotta figurine of the Flight into Egypt was made in a ceramic workshop in Cairo, along with a 12-piece Nativity set. The clothing styles are typical of rural Upper Egypt. The complete set, commissioned in 2010 by St. Mark’s Coptic Museum in Toronto, Canada, can be seen in Glencairn’s exhibition, Follow the Star: World Nativities. Settings for all the Nativities have been created by Bryn Athyn artisan Kathleen Glenn Pitcairn.

Number 11, 2012

Raymond and Mildred Pitcairn pose for their 1954 Christmas card picture beside the “Seven Days of Creation” fireplace in Glencairn’s Upper Hall. During Christmas time each year a large oil painting of the shepherds visiting the baby Jesus was hung above the fireplace. The painting was adapted from an illustration in The Christ Child, a 1931 children’s book by Maud and Miska Petersham, who gave permission for this large-scale adaptation of their work. The Christ Child was a special favorite of the Pitcairns, and in 1949 they gave over 100 copies of the book as gifts to friends and family. This and other Christmas traditions at Glencairn are brought to life in “Christmas in the Castle,” an all-new holiday tour. Participants in the tour explore outstanding examples of Nativity art through the ages in Glencairn’s collections. They also discover the answer to the question, “How do you celebrate Christmas in a 20th century castle?”

Number 11, 2011

This Neapolitan presepio is the work of the Giuseppe and Marco Ferrigno workshop, a fourth-generation family business in Naples, Italy. The faces, hands, lower legs, and feet of their figures are made of terracotta, which is then painted. Most of the figures have glass eyes. Other parts of the body are constructed with wire wrapped in cloth so that each figure can be posed. The clothing for each character is handmade in the 18th-century style, draped in San Leucio silks. The Ferrigno family began making presepi in Naples in 1836.