Glencairn Museum News | Number 4, 2021
Craftsmanship at Glencairn: Five Artists, an exhibit in the Great Hall, explores the work and lives of some of the artists who worked at Glencairn. Beginning this September, the Museum will also be launching a new guided tour about these artists and their work.
![Figure 1: As a Christmas gift in 1939, approximately one hundred men signed their names to a document beneath the following inscription: “To Mr. Raymond Pitcairn from his employe[e]s in grateful acknowledgment and appreciation of his continued employment during the recent years of adversity, and of the opportunity of participating in an unusual and outstanding architectural achievement.”](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56829c58a2bab87f93ee4d6a/1623258127531-G2JTM93JG52O1AKJW996/Letter+From+Workers+%281%29.jpeg)
Figure 1: As a Christmas gift in 1939, approximately one hundred men signed their names to a document beneath the following inscription: “To Mr. Raymond Pitcairn from his employe[e]s in grateful acknowledgment and appreciation of his continued employment during the recent years of adversity, and of the opportunity of participating in an unusual and outstanding architectural achievement.”
The high level of craftsmanship apparent at Glencairn has long been admired by artists, art historians, and the visiting public. Glencairn is a member of the Bryn Athyn Historic District, designated a National Historic Landmark by the United States Secretary of the Interior in 2008. This distinction is awarded only to buildings, sites, districts, structures, and objects that have been determined to be nationally significant in American history and culture. A large portion of the credit for this designation is due to the remarkable work of the dedicated artists and craftsmen who worked on both Bryn Athyn Cathedral and Glencairn—some of whom labored for decades.
The focus of the Craftsmanship at Glencairn: Five Artists exhibit, as well as the upcoming guided tour offered beginning in September, is twofold: (1) to illuminate the artistic motivations of Raymond Pitcairn, who commissioned hundreds of works of art for his family’s home, and (2) to profile the lives and work of five of the artists who created these artworks in stained glass, mosaic, stone, wood, and other materials. The five artists profiled are Parke Emerson Edwards (1890–1973), Winfred Sumner Hyatt (1891–1959), Robert Gurth Glenn (1913–2004), Benjamin Augustus Tweedale (1868–1957), and Frank Jeck (1884–1965).
Throughout history earning a living as an artist has often been a difficult path to follow, and the decades during which Bryn Athyn Cathedral and Glencairn were built were no exception (the years from 1913 to 1939 saw both World War I and the Great Depression). When the stock market crashed in 1929, Pitcairn considered suspending all construction on Glencairn. Instead, he decided to continue at a slower pace than he had originally planned. The decoration of the building was challenging, but also artistically rewarding, and the artists and craftsmen employed by Pitcairn were apparently grateful to find work during those difficult years. As a Christmas gift in 1939, approximately one hundred men signed their names to a document beneath the following inscription: “To Mr. Raymond Pitcairn from his employe[e]s in grateful acknowledgment and appreciation of his continued employment during the recent years of adversity, and of the opportunity of participating in an unusual and outstanding architectural achievement” (Figure 1).
Raymond Pitcairn held that the role and function of art was to raise people’s minds up to higher things. In a paper he delivered in 1920, he wrote, “The forms of art are ultimates, and they are powerful, although the origin of their power is from a higher or more interior source.” Because he believed that “the art of any epoch holds the spirit of the age,” he wanted the art he commissioned for Glencairn—the home he was building for his family—to convey key spiritual principles that were important to them (“Christian Art and Architecture for the New Church,” New Church Life, 1920). Pitcairn sometimes prepared his artists for their work by asking them to read suitable passages from the Bible or Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772). They would then discuss the project together and begin to formulate design ideas.
In accordance with the Pitcairns’ New Church (Swedenborgian Christian) beliefs, many of the artworks in Glencairn recall the biblical command, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18; Matthew 22:39). However, the New Church faith extends this concept of the neighbor to larger groups and communities of individuals (see, e.g., Emanuel Swedenborg, Arcana Coelestia ¶6819). Four decorative themes that are repeated throughout Glencairn are based on this expanded view of the biblical command. Raymond and Mildred Pitcairn filled Glencairn with artistic reminders of four of the communities they hoped their family would choose to serve during their lifetimes: Family, School, Country, and Church.
Pitcairn’s approach to building was also informed by his love for medieval art and architecture. He was determined to bring back something of the cooperative spirit that had existed in the craft guilds of the Middle Ages. In a draft for an unpublished project, he elaborated on his philosophy of building “in the Gothic way”:
“Artistic guidance applied continuously, and designers and craftsmen who work side by side, see eye to eye, and strive ever to build better and to produce work more beautiful, are needed for real building” (“Bryn Athyn Church: The Manner of the Building and a Defence Thereof” (book draft, Glencairn Museum Archives), 16 (draft two)).
Following below is an overview of the five artists featured in Craftsmanship at Glencairn.
Parke Emerson Edwards (1890–1973)
Parke Emerson Edwards was the main metal designer for Bryn Athyn Cathedral and Glencairn. The son of a Lancaster County cabinetmaker, he attended the Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art (today the University of the Arts) in Philadelphia, receiving a diploma in 1915. He studied metalwork under Samuel Yellin, who was famous throughout the United States for his metalwork designs. The summer before Edwards graduated, he was awarded a scholarship that allowed him to travel in Europe. Pitcairn hired him to work in Bryn Athyn beginning in 1915.
Figure 2: Parke E. Edwards with his design for a finial at the top of Glencairn’s tower in the shape of a knight riding on horseback. The concept was never realized; a much simpler finial was chosen instead, but a plaster and metal model of the design in two pieces still exists.
Figure 3: Perhaps the most frequently repeated motif in Glencairn is the grouping of ram, ewe, and lambs, symbolizing the importance of family. The massive, bronze double door leading from the Great Hall to the Cloister features a hand-wrought Monel metal handle on each side. The left handle is in the form of a ewe, and the one on the right is a ram (see Figure 4). This is an early pencil sketch of the ewe handle made during the development of the concept.
Figure 4: The finished handle in Monel metal on the inside of Glencairn’s Cloister double door (see Figure 3).
Figure 5: Winfred S. Hyatt at work, designing the white peacock mosaic for Glencairn’s “Bird Room.”
Winfred Sumner Hyatt (1891–1959)
Winfred Sumner Hyatt was the main stained-glass artist for Bryn Athyn Cathedral and Glencairn, designing and painting the majority of the windows in these medieval-style buildings. He also designed glass mosaics for Glencairn. Born in Toronto, Canada, to a New Church minister and his wife, Hyatt moved to Bryn Athyn to attend the Academy of the New Church. After graduation, he studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, where he won two Cresson Traveling Scholarships. In 1916 Raymond Pitcairn placed him in charge of the stained-glass studio in Bryn Athyn, where he worked until his death in 1959.
Figure 6: In Glencairn’s Upper Hall, on the south side of the building, is a stained-glass window commissioned by Raymond Pitcairn and designed by Winfred S. Hyatt (see Figure 7). A watercolor painting made by Hyatt during the design process is in the Museum’s collection. Pitcairn was politically active throughout his adult life, believing, in accordance with his New Church beliefs, that civic participation in public life was included in the biblical command to love one’s neighbor. Hyatt’s design of this window would have gone through a meticulous process before being approved by Pitcairn, and would most likely have included an initial discussion of ideas, sketches (each one being critiqued), a scale watercolor, and finally a full-sized cartoon.
Figure 7: The finished stained-glass window in Glencairn’s Upper Hall (see Figure 6).
Robert Gurth Glenn (1913–2004)
Robert Gurth Glenn designed glass mosaics at Glencairn. A nephew of Mildred and Raymond Pitcairn, he grew up in a house located on the edge of the Bryn Athyn Cathedral grounds. Glenn displayed a talent for drawing and painting at an early age. When he was about thirteen, Raymond asked him to paint a doll’s bed for one of his daughters, providing him with a reproduction of the Book of Kells as inspiration. (The Book of Kells is a ninth-century illuminated manuscript of the four Gospels created by Irish monks.) This was the beginning of Glenn’s fascination with Celtic knot designs, which found its ultimate expression in his glass mosaic designs for the ceiling of Glencairn’s Great Hall. In addition to Celtic knot designs on the beams and trusses of the ceiling, he also created mosaic star designs set in a field of blue acoustic tiles (see Figures 9-10).
Figure 8: Robert G. Glenn, Raymond and Mildred Pitcairn’s nephew, produced the mosaic designs for the Great Hall ceiling while still in his twenties.
Figure 9: These mosaic star designs by Robert G. Glenn, assembled from glass mosaic tesserae handmade in the Bryn Athyn glassworks, are found on the ceiling of Glencairn’s Great Hall. The yellow stars on the ceiling are scattered throughout a field of commercially produced blue acoustic tiles. Towering above numerous examples of Christian stained glass and sculpture on the walls and floor beneath, the ceiling of the Great Hall seems to evoke both the night sky and the divine organization of the cosmos. Star ceilings were common in ancient Egyptian tombs and temples, and are known in several other cultures and time periods. The precise inspiration for Raymond Pitcairn’s decision to decorate the ceiling of his home with stars is not known. However, he would have been aware of similar star ceilings in Europe, including those in Early Christian churches in Ravenna, Italy, and in Sainte-Chapelle, a thirteenth-century royal chapel in Paris, France.
Figure 10: Samuel Croft II prepares yellow mosaic stars designed by Robert G. Glenn.
Benjamin Augustus Tweedale (1868–1957)
Benjamin Augustus Tweedale, a stone carver, worked on both Bryn Athyn Cathedral and Glencairn. An example of his work in Glencairn’s Great Hall is the stone capital on the left side of the bronze doors leading to the Cloister. Tweedale also produced some of the twelve bird-themed capitals in the Cloister’s colonnade, as well as the armrests in the form of a ram and ewe for the large granite window seats. The corners of the Great Hall outside Glencairn’s north porch feature two large eagles, which the Pitcairns affectionately named “Benny” (see Figure 13) and “Pete” after their carvers (Benjamin Tweedale and Pietro Francesco Menghi). Tweedale also carved a wooden jewelry box in the shape of two doves for the Pitcairns’ 50th wedding anniversary.
Figure 11: Benjamin A. Tweedale posing with his tools outside one of the Bryn Athyn workshops.
Figure 12: A wooden filing cabinet drawer serves as a container for some of Benjamin A. Tweedale’s stone carving tools. Tweedale was known to be an extremely conscientious craftsman. While working on the Bryn Athyn Cathedral project in 1920, he accidentally broke off a small piece from a larger section of stone he was working on. He was so distressed by this that he left work for the day and went home. He then proceeded to write a note to Raymond Pitcairn, telling him, “if you wish me to return I will do so, if you do not, I thank you for the fair treatment I received while in your employ.” Pitcairn was apparently amused by this note, and Tweedale, of course, was asked to return.
Figure 13: One of the “Benny” or “Pete” eagles outside the Great Hall above Glencairn’s north porch. They were affectionately named after their carvers, Benjamin A.Tweedale, and Pietro F. Menghi.
Frank Jeck (1884–1965)
Frank Jeck, a woodcarver, designed and carved woodwork for Bryn Athyn Cathedral and Glencairn. He began working for Raymond Pitcairn in the 1920s, and was still working for him as late as 1942. Jeck was born to a German-speaking family in Perjámos, a village in Hungary (now known as Periam, located in present-day Romania). His education was limited to six years in public elementary school. He emigrated to the United States in 1903 and married a woman named Elizabeth, who, like Jeck, was born in Hungary. A crib he designed for one of the Pitcairn children in the 1920s (Figure 15) was exhibited by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in 1987, and by the American Craft Museum in 1993. Members of the Pitcairn family described him as a quiet, pleasant man, and a true artist.
Figure 14: Lachlan Pitcairn’s infant crib, carved in 1922 by Frank Jeck, has a top rail decorated with the “clouds of heaven” motif. A gilded wood model of a section of this top rail is in the Museum’s collection. According to art historian Michael W. Cothren, “Medieval artists commonly used a wavy, arching band of clouds (frequently placed across the corner of a rectangular composition) to show a separation between the earthly realm below and the heavenly realm above. For example, when a disembodied hand of God emerges from heaven to command or bless a situation taking place on earth, it is often overlapped by an arching band of ‘clouds of heaven.’”
Figure 15: Lachlan Pitcairn’s infant crib was carved by Frank Jeck in 1922. The crib was exhibited by the Museum of Fine Arts Boston in 1987 (“The Art that is Life”: The Arts & Crafts Movement in America, 1875-1920) and by the American Craft Museum in 1993 (The Ideal Home: The History of Twentieth-Century American Craft, 1900-1920).
(KHG)
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