Number 7, 2019
On November 11, 1965, the Raymond and Mildred Pitcairn family received a special visitor at Glencairn, their castle-like home in Bryn Athyn: James Rorimer—medieval art historian, former “Monuments Man,” and then-director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Read MoreNumber 6, 2019
Don't panic if you hear that a number of ferocious-looking lions recently left Bryn Athyn and made a cross-country journey to the West Coast. From May 14 to August 18, 2019, two of Glencairn’s medieval “lion” capitals are on loan to the J. Paul Getty Museum’s new exhibition, Book of Beasts: The Bestiary in the Medieval World.
Read MoreNumber 5, 2019
In this essay for Glencairn Museum News, Dr. Jennifer Houser Wegner, Associate Curator in the Egyptian Section of the Penn Museum (University of Pennsylvania), explores art and artifacts in Glencairn’s Egyptian Gallery that were made to prepare the deceased for a happy afterlife.
Number 4, 2019
The beams and trusses on the ceiling of Glencairn’s Great Hall are covered with thousands of individual tesserae, hand cut from mosaic glass made in the Bryn Athyn glassworks. The intricate mosaic designs for the beams and trusses were inspired by the Book of Kells, a medieval Celtic manuscript produced around 800 AD containing the four New Testament Gospels.
Read MoreNumber 3, 2019
In this essay for Glencairn Museum News, Dr. Michael Cothren, Glencairn’s longtime Consultative Curator of Medieval Stained Glass, presents the results of his research into several panels of thirteenth-century glass from Rouen Cathedral in France.
Read MoreNumber 2, 2019
Glencairn’s current exhibition, Hex Signs: Sacred and Celestial Symbolism in Pennsylvania Dutch Barn Stars, explores themes of sacred and celestial imagery in the traditional arts of the Pennsylvania Dutch, with special emphasis on the decorated barns of Southeastern Pennsylvania. The full text of the exhibition catalog is available online in this special issue of Glencairn Museum News (in both html and pdf formats).
Read MoreNumber 1, 2019
In this essay for Glencairn Museum News, Dr. Jennifer Borland, Associate Professor in Art History at Oklahoma State University, describes the process of researching medievalism at Glencairn.
Read MoreNumber 12, 2018
This year’s World Nativities exhibition features Nativity Maker’s Workshop, an extremely detailed miniature diorama created by R. Michael Palan. In this issue of Glencairn Museum News, Michael talks to us about his work, and we interview both Michael and Karen on video in the living room of their home in Bridgewater, New Jersey.
Read MoreNumber 11, 2018
This issue of Glencairn Museum News features five artists whose works are included in this year's World Nativities exhibition: Christina Orthwein (Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania), Nancy Schnarr-Bruell (Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania), Jeronimo Lozano (Peeru/Salt Lake City, Utah), Sabinita López Ortiz (Córdova, New Mexico), and Carmen Gutierrez Vazquez (San Miguel Aguasuelos, Veracruz-Mexico).
Read MoreNumber 10, 2018
In this essay for Glencairn Museum News, Dr. Jonathan Kline, Assistant Professor of Art History at Bryn Athyn College, explores the original contexts, functions, and meanings of the late thirteenth-century Annunciation and Second Coming frescoes in Glencairn’s Great Hall.
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