Number 1, 2012

On January 16, 1982, Glencairn, the former home of Raymond and Mildred Pitcairn, began a new chapter in its history, opening to the public as Glencairn Museum. In this photograph from the opening event, Margaret Wilde and Judith Smith, teachers from the Academy of the New Church Girls School, study an exhibit of Greek vases.

Number 12, 2011

The ornaments, Christmas village, and Nativity scene beneath this tree were gifted to Glencairn Museum in 2011 by Brother Bob Reinke, a Franciscan friar who is a pastoral associate at St. Ann’s Church in Hoboken, New Jersey. The decorations date from 1910 to 1955. Brother Bob, whose special love of Christmas has earned him the nickname “Brother Christmas,” joined the Brothers of the Poor of St. Francis in 1958. St. Francis is credited with popularizing the tradition of the Nativity scene, famously staging a live Nativity in the woods near Assisi, Italy, in 1223.

Number 9, 2011

This 1817 painting of Emanuel Swedenborg by noted Swedish portrait artist Carl Fredrik von Breda (1759–1818) was “rescued” from storage in 2003, cleaned by a conservator, and examined by an art historian. What was discovered in the process surprised everyone involved. (See below.) The von Breda portrait is currently on exhibit in Glencairn’s Upper Hall, where it will remain through the end of 2011. Photo: David Hershy, Lasting Expressions (Glencairn Museum number 06.OP.75)

Number 9 2011

This early photograph, reproduced from a glass negative in the Glencairn Museum Archives, shows Felice Sabatino working on a scale model of one of the pinnacles on the tower of Bryn Athyn Cathedral. Raymond Pitcairn, who oversaw the construction of Bryn Athyn Cathedral and Glencairn, explained how it came about that he began using architectural models: “My lack of training in draftsmanship and the reading of architectural drawings, I endeavored early in the work to offset through dealing with the designs in the form of scale and full-sized models” (Raymond Pitcairn. Letter to John T. Comes. 10 May 1920).

Number 8, 2011

This statue of Mary and the Christ Child (12.SP.04) was created during the second half of the twelfth century in France. The stiff and elongated features of Romanesque sculptures may not always appeal to modern viewers, but statues like these can tell us much about Christian beliefs during the Middle Ages.

Number 7, 2011

“I turned round to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and among the lampstands was someone ‘like a son of man,’ dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash round his chest” (Rev. 1: 12–13). The exhibition “The Apocalypse of John: Twenty-five Paintings by G. Roland Smith” opened at Glencairn Museum on Saturday, July 9, and will run until November 12, 2011.

Number 6, 2011

According to co-author Ed Gyllenhaal, “My favorite photograph is the one on the cover. Kirsten [Gyllenhaal] discovered it on an old glass negative in the archives. It shows the Raymond Pitcairn family around 1919 posing with their nanny, the mason foreman, and eight workmen at the very top of Bryn Athyn Cathedral, beside one of the pinnacles. In the background you can see buildings on the Cairnwood estate—the Pitcairns’ home—and the countryside, some of it still farmland. To me, the main themes of the book are encapsulated in that one image: religion, family, old world craftsmanship, and people from different backgrounds working together toward a common goal.”

Number 5, 2011

Bryn Athyn Cathedral: The Building of a Church by E. Bruce Glenn, an important book that has been out of print for many years, has been reissued in a new and updated second edition format. E. Bruce Glenn also published Glencairn: The Story of a Home, in 1990. The historical, architectural, and spiritual connections between Bryn Athyn Cathedral and Glencairn are well known to visitors who tour both buildings.

Number 4, 2011

Ed Gyllenhaal, curator of Glencairn Museum, and Lynn Grant, head conservator at the Penn Museum, that’s who. This picture of them was taken shortly after the installation of Glencairn’s ancient Egyptian “spirit door” at the Roemer- und Pelizaeus- Museum in Hildesheim, Germany. Both institutions have loaned Egyptian objects to an important museum exhibition, “Giza: Gateway to the Pyramids.”