Posted in Inspiration, tagged colors, Contributing Writer, correspondence, Inspiration, Photography, Postcards, stationery on April 14, 2015| Leave a Comment »
… but I usually like to send them off with just a simple word or two like “Hi, how are you?” and conclude with a smiley face. Okay, sometimes I say a bit more, like “remember to look at the sunset outside your window.” These are a few of the postcards available in my online shop. You can view the full selection via this link: ImagesbyCynthia Postcards
Posted in Inspiration, Nature Notes, tagged beauty, calm, colors, flowers, gardening, Inspiration, nature, Photography, spring on April 13, 2015| 1 Comment »
… when you walk through Ricky’s Flower Market. Spring has arrived (even if another flake or two might fall before month’s end). I love my indoor gardening but I do appreciate wandering through this outdoor market. A simple way of finding calm. 😉
Posted in Inspiration, tagged architecture, assistive technology, charity, compassion, Cordelia Harmon, design, faith, history, Inspiration, Phillips Brooks, Photography, stained glass, storytelling, Trinity Church on April 13, 2015| 2 Comments »
Photo of Charity, Courtesy of Trinity Archives
Charity is a stained glass window once located at Trinity Church in the City of Boston. It was designed by Frederic Crowninshield. The inscription at the bottom of the window, barely legible in the above photo, reads “In memory of Cordelia Harmon, the friend of the poor and friendless. Died May 25, 1883.” In an 1888 publication providing a descriptive account of the church, including of its windows, Harmon was described as “the Almoner of Trinity Church for many years, and through her good deeds was well known by all the poor in any way connected with the Parish. The window was a gift of members of the Parish.”
Born in Maine, Cordelia Harmon (1820-1883) spent her adult life in the Boston area. It is clear from surviving records that she consistently strove to help those who could least help themselves. Regardless of good deeds done as an elementary school teacher, a nurse at Mass General Hospital or serving people through programs offered by her church, Harmon appears to have never turned her eyes away from the wrongs that remained around her.
One of the church-supported programs that she participated on was The Ladies’ Relief Agency. As a part of that charity’s design, every application submitted seeking assistance was investigated, including a home visit. Through such visits, and no doubt her work with other charities, Harmon was able to see firsthand the lack of support for those with chronic diseases, people who were turned away from hospitals, and many of whom had no family to care for them. She would write: “How can a man, breathing fetid air, living in the squalor and debasement that abound, where the poor most do congregate and often of necessity, feel hope or courage to rise above his condition?”
Harmon imagined creating a home for those people where they could live a good life until the end of their days. It was an idea that she would discuss with Phillips Brooks, the rector of Trinity Church. He would help her raise the funds to open The Boston Home for the Incurables in 1881. Harmon would work at this home until she “died at her post” in 1883. Phillips Brooks was traveling abroad when he learned of Harmon’s death. In a letter to his brother he wrote:
Despite his expression of not feeling well-fitted to do the work of Cordelia Harmon, upon his return to Boston, Phillips Brooks did continue her legacy. In 1883, Trinity formed The Committee for the Establishment of The Boston Home for Incurables to raise funds to expand upon Harmon’s idea. Funds raised helped the Home to acquire a larger facility and accommodate more patients. It would continue to expand and refine its services over the next 130 years. Today, the Boston Home is a respected, model institution serving nearly 100 residents.
The only known surviving image of the Harmon window is a black and white photo taken in the 1920s. In the center of the image, a woman and two children, destitute. To the left, a figure with head bowed, the weight of the world upon his shoulders. Standing amidst them is Jesus. And above them all, in capital letters, is the text: Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, my brethren, ye have done it unto me. The window did not survive major renovations that took place in the 1950s. The window may be gone but the memory and legacy of Miss Cordelia Harmon lives on and continues to evolve.
Sources, Additional Reading, Etc.
https://www.givingcommon.org/profile/1072657/the-boston-home-inc/
September 19, 2014 article with video: http://assistivetech.scripts.mit.edu/blog/finding-a-home/
Charity postcard with insert about Harmon available at Trinity Church Bookshop
Posted in Inspiration, tagged art, colors, creativity, glass, history, Inspiration, Margaret Redmond, Photography, stained glass, Trinity Church, women artists on April 12, 2015| 4 Comments »
“A plain black gown emphasized her type, which is fine, clean cut and deceptively simple. Her eyes are dark and bright, her hair spun silver and the modulations of her low pitched voice are peculiarly musical. Denying herself color, she is a master of color.”
Margaret Redmond, circa 1927
In 1927, artist Margaret Redmond (1867-1948) was interviewed in her studio at 45 Newbury Street, Boston. The interviewer Helen Fitzgerald described the space as, “a veritable treasure trove to the art lover. All about her color glows and flames. On the walls are sketches of colorful places … and the light transmuted by the stained glass of her own making fills the room with rays of gold and ruby, emerald, violet and blue so intense that it stirs in the sensitive observer an emotion akin to ecstasy.”
Detail from Evangelists Window, Trinity Church, 1927
Detail from the Evangelists Window, Trinity Church, 1927
For the 1927 interview and in others, Redmond describes in detail her stained glass technique and why she chose to work with glass quite differently than contemporaries John La Farge or Louis Comfort Tiffany, whose works she admired. As author Elinor Morgan summarized, La Farge and Tiffany designed with glass, whereas Redmond sought to use the glass as her canvas.
Detail from the Evangelists Window, Trinity Church, 1927
Born in Philadelphia, Redmond would study at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, travel abroad to study in Europe, before returning to the states. In that 1927 interview, Redmond shared, “I went to England and France, where I spent two years studying the old glass windows in cathedrals, churches and museums. … My studies led me to many old cities and their churches and cathedrals.”
Detail from the Evangelists Window, Trinity Church, 1927
“When I had completed my pilgrimage of the cathedrals, I studied with Simon and Mellard in Paris. Returning to this country, I came to Boston and entered the studio of Connick, the famous maker of stained glass, where I made my first window.”
Charles Jay Connick
Redmond apprenticed with Connick between 1906 and 1910. Prior to that she bought a farm in Nelson, New Hampshire in an area that would become a hub for artists and intellectuals with Pennsylvania roots. Redmond would maintain a summer home and studio there. Examples of her painting and stained glass work can still be found in this community.
Though her medieval inspired style of glassmaking was not in vogue, Redmond received a wide range of commissions for work in churches as well as in private homes and businesses. She exhibited her work, including watercolors and oil paintings as well as stained glass items, at arts and craft shows across the nation.
The 1920s and 1930s is considered her most productive period and this is when, for approximately $12,800, she would produce a series of windows for Trinity Church in the City of Boston, from the Apostles to the Evangelists (pictured earlier in this post) to scenes from the life of David and Solomon.
Throughout her career, Redmond was an innovator, for instance, experimenting with different uses for stained glass in the home, including fire screens which were popular in the period. Though respected as an artist, she like many women was too often ostracized in a male-dominated field. But in her studios she worked with both men and women, making a special effort to train young women as assistants in the different phases of the work. In 1931, Connick would ask Redmond to list some of her favorite creations. She would include on the list the windows produced for Trinity Church.
Detail from Tree of Life Window, Trinity Church
I have been unable to find a book solely about Margaret Redmond, or a single listing of her creations, but her papers including contracts are housed in the Smithsonian Archives of American Art. A research project for another day perhaps. 😉
Sources/Additional Reading
Creates Stained Glass Windows, Margaret Redmond Searches Europe for Secrets of her Chosen Art, September 11, 1927 article interview by Helen Fitzgerald, Sunday Eagle Magazine, September 11, 1927
History Written in Glass by Elizabeth B. Prudden, The Christian Science Monitor, June 30, 1931
A Woman in Stained Glass … Against the Odds by Elinor Morgan, Stained Glass Quarterly, 1990
Women Artists at Trinity: Sarah Wyman Whitman and Margaret Redmond, article by Erica E. Hirshler in Makers of Trinity ed. by James F. O’Gorman, 2004
Posted in Inspiration, Kitchen Inspirations, tagged abstract, colors, food photography, fun, Inspiration, light, Photography, red onion, red tomato on April 11, 2015| 2 Comments »
… you place a slice of red onion, a slice of red tomato and a bit of creamy white garlic on a gold clay saucer and then wrap that saucer with some clear plastic? Simply leftovers from a late lunch. Well, depending on the right light pouring through a window, sometimes I think you get magic. 😉
Posted in Inspiration, Kitchen Inspirations, tagged abstract, beauty, black and white, flowers, Inspiration, monotype, nasturtium, Photography on April 9, 2015| 3 Comments »
Posted in Inspiration, Kitchen Inspirations, tagged beauty, colors, flowers, indoor gardening, Inspiration, leaves, nasturtium, petals, Photography on April 9, 2015| 4 Comments »
Posted in Inspiration, tagged architecture, art, Back Bay, beauty, colors, design, faith, Franz Xaver Zettler, Inspiration, munich glass, Our Lady of Victories Catholic Shrine, Photography, religion, stained glass, stained glass windows, storytelling on April 7, 2015| 1 Comment »
In the shadow of the Back Bay is how the brochure describes the location of Our Lady of Victories Catholic Shrine. I chanced upon the church yesterday after a meeting. Crossing a street, I actually saw the back of the building first, an old brick structure with darkened windows that clearly had to be stained glass. I made my way to the front of the building, studying the exterior and wondering if I might contact someone, some day, to ask if I might photograph the interior.
“Do you want to go inside the church?” A large man stood across the street. He seemed to be in a hurry because he didn’t even wait for my answer before saying, “Just go down those stairs over there.” Then he continued on his way.
I went down the stairs into a little alleyway. There were a couple of older gentlemen there having a smoke. They greeted me kindly, and again without really waiting for me to say I wanted to enter the church, they directed me through a side door.
Inside was dark and warm. People moved about a bit in the shadows and I could hear a few sounds. I could see no stained glass windows though. Then, to my right, a gentleman walked from a side room. He smiled and said, “You can come on in. We’re just watching a movie.”
I thanked him for the offer, and said, “Actually, sir, I was wondering if I could go inside the church upstairs where the windows are.” His grin widened, and he said, “Of course. Just go back outside and up the stairs. The doors are open.”
That’s what I did and following is a bit of what I saw. There are quite a few images so please enjoy at your leisure. You can read more about the church’s history via this link. In the future I hope to post more about the architecture and about the primary window designer, Franz Xaver Zettler. And, by the way, I believe that the gentlemen who were so kind to me, were themselves being helped. Located in the basement of the church is the Medeiros Center for Change.
Posted in Inspiration, Nature Notes, tagged beauty, colors, flowers, indoor gardening, Inspiration, morning's light, nature, Photography, primrose on April 6, 2015| Leave a Comment »
… something about this morning’s light in the pale petals and against the dark leaves reminded me of both dawn and sunset come together.
Posted in Inspiration, Nature Notes, tagged african violets, buds, colors, flowers, indoor gardening, Inspiration, Photography on April 6, 2015| 1 Comment »
I wasn’t sure it would survive the winter. Some of the leaves are not in great shape, but peeking out this morning were these buds.
Words + Images 