Lawrence B. (Lawrence Bradford) Saint Collection

Collection

Identifier: MS-0132

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

This collections comprises sketches, technical drawings, photographs, and ephemera assembled from various sources. Most of the materials document Saint's involvement in the design and fabrication of stained glass windows in the Washington National Cathedral. The William Thomas Hildrup, Jr. windows are particularly well documented; researchers will find twenty sketches, design drawings, and fragements of design drawings for those windows.

Materials in the collection are arranged alphabetically, but physical arrangement does not follow intellectual arrangement.

Dates

1909-1940

Language of Materials

Collection materials are in English.

Conditions Governing Access

This collection is open for public research. Researchers must make an appointment to view the collection.

Conditions Governing Use

The Copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. Under certain conditions specified in the law, libraries and archives are authorized to furnish a photocopy or other reproduction. One of these specified conditions is that the reproduction is not to be "used for any purpose other than private study, scholarship, or research." If a user makes a request for, or later uses, a photocopy or reproduction for purposes in excess of "fair use," that user may be liable for copyright infringement. The user agrees to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless the Corning Museum of Glass and the Rakow Research Library against all claims, demands, costs and expenses incurred by copyright infringement or any other legal or regulatory cause of action arising from the use of Library materials.

Biographical / Historical

Lawrence B. (Lawrence Bradford) Saint was born in Sharpsburg, Pennsylvania in 1885. His father was a modestly successful landscape painter and silhouette artist. Saint left school at the age of 13 and worked at a wallpaper shop in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He learned the stained glass trade as an artist’s apprentice and entered the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1905. During his last year of art school, Saint, a devout Presbyterian, also worked at a Christian mission in Philadelphia. Saint found great inspiration in European stained glass, and in 1913 his paintings of Medieval stained glass windows were published in Stained Glass of the Middle Ages in England and France.

Unlike many stained glass artists and designers, Saint made his own glass for use in stained glass windows. Saint is perhaps best known for his work in the Washington National Cathedral in Washington, DC. He led the Cathedral’s stained glass studio and created 14 windows for the Cathedral, including the North Rose Window (The Last Judgement).

Saint died in 1961 at the age of 76.

Extent

8.3 Linear Feet (1 half Hollinger boxes, 2 flat boxes, and 1 oversized folder)

Additional Description

Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements

Researchers should be aware that most materials in this collection are fragile and embrittled.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Materials received from various sources, most recently the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1960.

Related Materials

Lawrence Bradford Saint papers, 1907-1940. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. (Microfilm copy; originals held by the Free Library of Philadelphia)

Washington National Cathedral Stained Glass Formulae Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.