The Early Beginnings of Stained Glass in America

Glass making was the first industry set up in America in Jamestown, settled in 1607. The English were running out of wood to fuel their furnaces. The endless forests and sand in the New World dictated the choice. To reassure his English investors, Captain John Smith wrote that the glass-making venture was a success, but the operation was very short lived. Bottles and window glass were the primary glass products of this venture.

In 1637 or 1638, Evert Duyckingh came from Borken, a Dutch-German border town, to New Amsterdam (now New York). He was a painter, glazier and "burner of glass". The sort of small house windows he made can be seen in Dutch paintings: a small round, square or oval panel set in a background of clear glass quarries. The subjects, often a family coat of arms, were applied with enamels and silver stain. Several examples of this type of glass are preserved at the New York Historical Society and the Metropolitan Museum of Art; while they are contemporary with Duyckingh's work, it is not certain that they are actually his work.

In 1648, Duyckingh took on Cornelius Jansen as an apprentice. In 1656 he requested payment for glass he put in a church, 2 1/2 beavers for each. Duyckingh also made a window for the City Hall showing the coat of arms of New Amsterdam. He wrote complaining he had not been paid.

Labadist missionaries arrived on a ship in 1679 on which Evert Duyckingh Jr. was mate. Their new church window was made by Evert Sr. and another son, Gerrit. In 1674, the Duyckingh operation passed on to Jacob Melyer.

In 1654, Jan Smeedes set up glass works in lower Manhattan to make roundels. Blowing spun roundels may be seen in old prints such as those in Diderot's Encyclopedia. At first, the outer part of the roundel was in greater demand for glazing windows. The center with the punty mark was cheaper. Later windows of multiple "bullseyes" glazed in quarry patterns were quite popular.

Churches in early America were simple meeting houses of wood or brick and white woodwork. Stained glass was out of fashion or economically impractical. Old Swedes Church in Philadelphia, when it opened, had no glass in the windows, only shutters. Small shutters inside the larger outside ones were used in cold weather.

In the nineteenth century, William Gibson began the earliest known glass business in America around 1834 in New York City. This venture did not last, but he tried again several decades later and would promote himself as the "father of glass painting" in the United States.

Robert Bolton, elder of one of the most interesting families in American stained glass history, came from England when he inherited property in Savannah, Georgia. The family moved for a time to New York State, then returned to England where William Jay and John were born. After a time, the family returned to New York and built a home in Pelham. William was a talented artist and studied with Samuel F.B. Morse. They made some small stained glass windows for their home and followed them in 1843 with the first-known American-made figural window, the Nativity for Christ Church at Pelham, New York. These were followed in 1844 by the tour de force of the fenestration of Holy Trinity Church in Brooklyn, (today Saint Ann's and Holy Trinity).

The elder Otto Heinigke wrote of them: "Let me tell you that there is nothing being done today the world over, that can compare with the vigor, the freedom and the fire of these remarkable windows." Otto Weir Heinigke wrote: "I believe that group of windows to be the finest in this country in nobility of conception as an architectural decoration and as a comprehensive exposition of the history of God's people from the Creation to Christ's glorification in the Apocalyptic vision."

After this job, William Bolton returned to England and opened a stained glass studio in Cambridge where he worked restoring the windows of Kings College. Another window by him was recently rediscovered at West Lynne in Norfolk, England. When he went to Cambridge, William attended classes that were not available in America. While a student, he married, but his wife soon fell ill and died. This so upset him that he studied for holy orders and became an ordained clergyman. He married a second time and had several children.

Meanwhile, his brother John continued to make stained glass in America long enough to do windows for the Church of the Holy Apostles in Manhattan. He, too, became a clergyman, and after one or two other charges, went to Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in West Chester, Pennsylvania. While there, he made the decorative aisle windows. The chancel window in that church is by La Farge and is a memorial to members of the Bolton family.

Many years later, a visitor from Holy Trinity Church in Brooklyn sought out an aged daughter of William's who was supposed to be on her deathbed. She had never heard of her father's earlier career in stained glass. The story so excited her she arose from her bed and traveled from England to the United States to see the windows.

The year 1844 saw the commencement of a set of figurative altar windows for the architect Richard Upjohn's Trinity Episcopal Church. Upjohn contributed to the design that was probably produced by Thomas F. Hoppin. They were fabricated by Abner Stephenson.

In the 1850s several important studios were established that would survive and promote the industry. Henry Sharp, Henry Belcher, Joseph and Richard Lamb of Lamb Studios and William Gibson (who had reentered the field) founded these studios. Despite these advances, the industry was still delicately balanced; it was growing slowly, which was a reflection of individual dedication and struggle. The quality of materials was limited compared to what it would be only a few decades later; further, the window artistry was largely derivative of foreign trends in the trade and decorative furnishings industry. By the 1870s, the economic prospects for the industry were improving. Scotsman Daniel Cottier and Englishman Charles Booth set up firms in New York and New Jersey respectively to capitalize on the expanded American markets.

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