Number 5, 2015

Recently Warren Holzman, a nationally-renowned blacksmith, was interviewed by Rebecca Gyllenhaal, student-editor of Bryn Athyn College’s Pythia: A Journal of Arts, Literature, and Spirituality(The interview below is an expanded version of the one that appears in Pythia.) Warren teaches metal forging at Bryn Athyn College, and has designed and created new metalwork for Glencairn Museum and Bryn Athyn Cathedral. He has called the metalwork and other craftwork in these buildings, “the wonderful gift that Bryn Athyn has given to the world.”

Number 4, 2015

Marc Chagall (1887–1985) has been called the quintessential Jewish artist of the 20th century, and one of the foremost visual interpreters of the Bible. He was born in Vitebsk, Belarus, into a traditional Hasidic Jewish family. According to Chagall, “Since my early youth I have been fascinated by the Bible. It has always seemed to me and it seems to me still that it is the greatest source of poetry of all time. Since then I have sought this reflection in life and in art. The Bible is like an echo of nature and this secret I have tried to transmit.”

Number 3, 2015

In this essay for Glencairn Museum News, Dr. Julia Perratore, Mellon Curatorial Fellow at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, explains the unique historical connections between Glencairn Museum and the Cloisters Museum in New York City. According to Dr. Perratore, “the designs for both Glencairn and the Met’s Cloisters embraced a combined approach that emulated and approximated medieval architectural styles using modern building materials, on the one hand, and made use of actual medieval materials whenever possible, on the other. As a result, both Glencairn and the Cloisters’ buildings incorporate tall, Romanesque-inspired towers, chapels, halls and cloister spaces, and there are actual medieval pieces inserted into the walls throughout.”

Number 2, 2015

Molas are hand-stitched reverse appliqué panels made for the front and back of blouses worn by Cuna women, who live on the San Blas Islands along the coast of Panama. Each mola in this exhibition illustrates a story from the Bible—from the Garden of Eden to the Ascension of Jesus Christ into heaven.

Number 1, 2015

This holiday season Glencairn Museum and the National Christmas Center and Museum have collaborated on a Christmas exhibition at Glencairn: A Century of Santa: Images of Santa Claus in the 1800s. The exhibition was co-curated by Glencairn’s curator, Ed Gyllenhaal, and the National Christmas Center’s founder and curator, Jim Morrison. Almost all of the objects are on loan from the Center, many originating from Jim’s personal collection. The editors of Glencairn Museum News thought our readers might like to know more about Jim (a.k.a. Santa, Jr.) and the National Christmas Center and Museum—his brainchild—which is located in Paradise, Pennsylvania, just outside of Lancaster.

Number 12, 2014

Beginning this holiday season, visitors to the Gettysburg National Military Park Museum and Visitor Center may see the Nativity scenes made in Bryn Athyn for the Eisenhower White House. In 1954 Raymond and Mildred Pitcairn commissioned Winfred S. Hyatt to make a single Nativity scene for President and Mrs. Eisenhower. It was displayed in the East Room of the White House that same year, next to the Christmas tree. Two more scenes were added in 1957.

Number 10, 2014

A limestone capital depicting the martyrdom of Andrew the Apostle, also known as Saint Andrew, is on exhibit in Glencairn’s Medieval Gallery (09.SP.3). In this essay for Glencairn Museum News, Dr. Julia Perratore, Mellon Curatorial Fellow at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, recounts the story of St. Andrew and places this sculpture within the context of religion and art. According to Dr. Perratore, “the Glencairn capital is an unusual example of a saint’s martyrdom commemorated in stone, and the sculptor very capably handled what may have been an unfamiliar subject. ”

Number 9, 2014

Glencairn Museum’s ancient Egyptian collection includes more than four dozen magical amulets of the hippopotamus-shaped goddess Taweret (literally “The Great [Female] One”). Taweret was a key figure in the religious life of ancient Egyptian families, and images of her appear on a variety of magical artifacts. Pregnant and nursing women used amulets of Taweret to protect themselves and their babies from evil spirits. The goddess is fearsome in appearance, combining the physical attributes of the hippopotamus, crocodile, and lion. Taweret sometimes also carried a knife to help her ward off evil.

In this essay, Dr. Jennifer Houser Wegner, Associate Curator in the Egyptian Section of the Penn Museum (University of Pennsylvania), explains the role of this important domestic goddess in ancient Egyptian family life.

Number 8, 2014

Henry Chapman Mercer and Raymond Pitcairn shared interests in architecture, collecting, and the revival of the production of bygone crafts. Both men were self-taught architects from well-to-do families who used their financial means to build “castles” in neighboring Pennsylvania counties (Bucks and Montgomery). Fonthill, an eclectic mix of Gothic and Renaissance styles, was Mercer’s private residence. He built the Mercer Museum (1913-1916), his other Doylestown castle, to exhibit his large collection of tiles, tools, and artifacts of pre-industrial life. Pitcairn built Glencairn, a Romanesque-style home for his large family and his renowned collection of medieval art, between 1928 and 1939.