Glencairn Museum News | Number 12, 2020
The sun sets over the Bryn Athyn Historic District on December 13, 2020. Photo by Ty Klippenstein.
The year 2020, although challenging for Glencairn in many ways, has also been an opportunity to make new friends—both nearby and around the world. We hope to meet many of these friends in person soon. According to one “virtual” visitor, “I have been enjoying this [online exhibition] so much! I’ve lived in the area my whole life and never visited Glencairn. Will visit when the mess is over.” Another wrote, “When life gets back to normal, we plan on a visit to the museum!!!”
In February our exhibition team was working hard to prepare for the official opening of Sacred Adornment: Jewelry as Belief in Ancient Egypt. Before the exhibition could open, however, the COVID-19 shutdown happened. Thanks to our partnership with Google Arts & Culture (see below), we were able to make some parts of the exhibition available online. Some visitors were also able to see the exhibition in person in the fall, but to make up for lost time we have now extended it through October 2021.
In April Glencairn Museum launched its official partnership with Google Arts & Culture, and since then over 150 works of art from the Museum’s permanent collection have been published online. This innovative Google platform is an immersive way to experience art, history, and culture from more than two thousand organizations worldwide. Glencairn’s growing virtual collection may be viewed here.
One of the many useful features of Google Arts & Culture is the ability to curate virtual exhibits based on objects in a museum’s collection. Glencairn’s first “online exhibit” with Google Arts & Culture is based on our current temporary exhibition in the Upper Hall: Sacred Adornment: Jewelry as Belief in Ancient Egypt. To see the online exhibit, go here: Sacred Adornment: Jewelry as Belief in Ancient Egypt.
In March, at the beginning of the COVID-19 shutdown, we asked our social media followers, “What do you want to see?” This was the beginning of our #GlencairnBehindTheScenes series, which provided our audience with virtual access to parts of Glencairn not normally visible to the general public, as well as photos of objects in storage. This ostrich egg is in Glencairn’s ancient Egyptian collection. The Egyptians sometimes emptied ostrich eggs and used them for carrying liquids such as water and milk. In some contexts, eggs could symbolize new life and rebirth, not unlike the symbolism of modern Christian Easter eggs.
Another post in our #GlencairnBehindTheScenes series was about the chimes in the kitchen pantry. When Glencairn was a home, every evening after dinner Raymond Pitcairn led a short worship service in Glencairn’s fifth-floor chapel. After the dishes from the evening meal were washed, a button was pressed in the kitchen that rang chimes throughout the building. This was the signal for the family, and for any household staff who wished to attend, to gather in the chapel. The service included saying the Lord’s Prayer, readings from Scripture, and the singing of hymns a capella.
Over the past year we have begun production on several different video series, which are accessible online through Glencairn’s YouTube channel. The videos feature interviews with experts about the Museum’s objects, artists associated with Glencairn, and educators teaching about the collections. In this video Dr. Wendy E. Closterman, Professor of History and Greek at Bryn Athyn College, explains the meaning of the imagery on the Museum’s mid-fifth century B.C. hydria (vessel for carrying water).
Life in quarantine in 2020 has made puzzle enthusiasts of many of us, so Glencairn established an online presence with Jigsaw Planet. The global “slow art” movement is about slowing down and taking time to notice the fine details of individual works of art. We’ve noticed that the average amount of time people spend assembling online puzzles of Glencairn’s artworks is between five and ten minutes—the minimum time recommended by proponents of “slow art.” Visit Glencairn Museum at Jigsaw Planet.
In May Glencairn Museum installed a new banner at our Huntingdon Pike entrance, designed in-house by Glencairn, to thank healthcare professionals and all other essential workers who have worked hard and sacrificed during the pandemic. As Mister Rogers would say, we should “look for the helpers”—but we should also not forget to thank them! We were also able to provide 120 lunches to the ICU and radiology departments at Abington Hospital. In addition, members of Glencairn’s staff personally funded 100 face masks from the Bryn Athyn Mask Initiative, which we delivered to Holy Redeemer Hospital.
In 2020 we added a new Educational Resources page to our website. These materials cover topics connected to the Museum’s current programs and collections, such as life in the ancient world and in the Middle Ages. With special activities for different age groups—and new items added regularly with links posted on Glencairn’s social media—our hope is that these online resources will help build understanding and foster empathy with young people as they learn about the beliefs and practices of human beings throughout time.
In the summer of 2020 we launched #GlencairnMuseumKids. This new hashtag and logo design were created to brand new content, delivered through social media, providing opportunities for children to engage in Glencairn’s collections and programs in new and fun ways. During the time when we are unable to host in person our usual groups of school children, homeschoolers, and families, this new initiative has become a way for us to stay connected to our community of Glencairn Museum children and families.
This year we have continued digitizing a broad array of Bryn Athyn Historic District archival materials, which can be accessed online. This 1922 family photograph was taken in Cairnwood's Hall. The fireplace, with its elaborate French mantle, is covered with a curtain to provide a backdrop for an arrangement of three medieval sculptures, which Raymond Pitcairn later moved to Glencairn’s Great Hall. From left: Gabriele Pitcairn Pendleton, Karen Pitcairn Cole, Ivan Pitcairn, Nathan Pitcairn, Raymond Pitcairn, Bethel Pitcairn Junge, Michael Pitcairn, and Mildred Glenn Pitcairn holding Lachlan Pitcairn. The Bryn Athyn Historic District Archives is located on the lower level of Glencairn. It houses approximately 1,500 linear feet of records and manuscripts related to the history of the Bryn Athyn Historic District.
In September we introduced our new Photo Scavenger Hunt, a safe outdoor activity for families who would like to explore Glencairn’s gardens and grounds. A smartphone or device is required. This tour, delivered through a web application, is free of charge. After searching for specific architectural features, participants can post photographs of them (including “selfies”) on social media. Tag us @glencairnmuseum and use #glencairnscavengerhunt when you post your photos. Get started here.
Our annual family-friendly Halloween event, inspired by the Harry Potter book series by J.K. Rowling, moved outdoors this year. Reimagined as “Myth & Magic at the Museum,” this outdoor digital Scavenger Hunt was available from October 26 to November 1 through a web-based application.
This fall Glencairn debuted “Discover Glencairn,” a self-guided, socially-distanced tour using our web-based application. The new tour included the exterior and Cloister garden, the mosaic Bird Room, the Upper Hall, and the Great Hall. Access to the Sacred Adornment: Jewelry as Belief in Ancient Egypt exhibition was also included. This tour was designed to provide visitors with a safe, enjoyable, and private experience.
This year Glencairn’s annual Medieval Festival took place as an online experience. Participants traveled on a virtual “pilgrimage” to learn about religious sites in medieval Europe, and enjoyed demonstrations by our participating artisans. Family-friendly activities were made available on Glencairn’s website. The pilgrimage and demonstrator videos are available on our YouTube channel here.
Beginning in November, and for several weeks in December until the second COVID-19 shutdown, Glencairn was able to offer “Discover Christmas at Glencairn.” For this self-guided tour, delivered on cell phones via our web-based application, the first floor of Glencairn was decorated for the holidays with poinsettias, wreaths, a Christmas tree with antique glass ornaments, and more. Children were invited to participate in the Nativity Seek-and-Find (and were rewarded with a prize). Christmas decorations used by the Raymond and Mildred Pitcairn family when they lived at Glencairn were on display, including a miniature diorama with Swedish tomtar (elves), a Steiff ride-on donkey, and a large three-part Nativity scene made for the Pitcairns (and on display at Glencairn every year since 1939).
In 2020, instead of the usual in-person experience, Glencairn Museum’s annual World Nativities exhibition is taking place online for all to enjoy. For many centuries the story of the birth of Jesus Christ has been depicted through the creative lens of artists from a wide variety of spiritual, intellectual, and cultural backgrounds. Every day, from December 1 through December 25, a new Nativity scene from Glencairn’s collection appeared in our online Advent calendar. Original settings for many of the Nativities were created by Bryn Athyn artist Kathleen Glenn Pitcairn. Viewers were able to follow Glencairn’s social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr) to receive each day’s Nativity in their newsfeed.
Glencairn’s annual Christmas Homeschool Day took place during the month of December as a free, virtual experience. Participants were able to explore our multi-sensory Christmas Nativity Explorer’s Notebook and make a Christmas craft. This offering continues to be available on our website here.
New for 2020, our “Christmas in the Castle” online video tour invites you to journey back through time to explore the holiday traditions of the Pitcairn family in Glencairn, their remarkable 20th-century castle. For forty years (1940s to 1970s) the Pitcairns celebrated Christmas at Glencairn with a concert featuring members of the Philadelphia Orchestra (see below), a large three-part Nativity scene, a decorated tree in the Great Hall reaching beyond the second-floor balcony, and a Christmas meal in the Upper Hall. The tour concludes with a telling of the Christmas story, illustrated by Nativity art at Glencairn from the Raymond Pitcairn collection. The content for this video has been adapted from the “Christmas in the Castle” guided tour offered each year at Glencairn.
This year—due to the challenges created by the coronavirus pandemic—the 84-year old annual tradition of the Glencairn Christmas Sing was continued in a special online program, with musicians performing music familiar to generations of Glencairn audiences. This unique concert video features the Glencairn Horns, the Cathedral Quartet, 1 IN 2, and a variety of vocalists and speakers. Making the program especially festive and meaningful are glimpses of the Great and Upper Halls decorated for Christmas, as well as Christmas art and Nativities from the Museum’s collection. Also included are re-enactments of long-standing family Christmas traditions from the time when Glencairn was the home of the Raymond and Mildred Pitcairn family.
Glencairn Museum News, a free publication posted on our website and social media 12 times per year, features in-depth articles about Glencairn and its collections. In 2020 we published an article by a Penn Museum Egyptologist who curated our current “Sacred Adornment” exhibition, an interview with a Metropolitan Museum of Art curator who has published medieval objects from Glencairn’s collection, a biographical sketch of Glencairn artist Winfred Sumner Hyatt, an interview with the husband-and-wife artist team who created American Nativity, and more. Glencairn Museum News has been published online since 2011, with 108 issues now permanently archived online. You can read them all here.
(CEG)
A complete archive of past issues of Glencairn Museum News is available online here.