Introduction

Trinity Episcopal Cathedral has over forty large stained glass windows that range in age from the 15th to the 20th Century. The medieval windows were produced in England and Germany, while the more contemporary windows were produced by such prominent studios as those directed by Willet, Connick, Tiffany, Heaton, Young, and Burnham. The more contemporary windows are of considerable artistic and historical interest, but there is very little information available about them. Some of the windows were briefly described in two publications produced by congregation members (The Altar Society, 1912, revised 1939; Hehr, undated pamphlet). Other printed information on the windows is scattered throughout newspaper descriptions and church records.

This monograph specifically focuses on the windows of Trinity Cathedral produced by the Wilbur H. Burnham Studios. The Burnham Studios windows are the most accessible windows within the cathedral. Positioned just above eye level, they may be easily observed and studied. Located below the great windows of the transept and along the side aisles of the nave, as a group, they tell a thematically unified story based on legendary and biblical information about the life of Jesus.

Chester B. Emerson, Dean of Trinity Cathedral, began working on the window project in 1937, if not earlier. For over three and a half years, Dean Emerson and Wilbur H. Burnham, Sr., owner and window designer of the Burnham Studios in Boston, Massachusetts, carried on a correspondence concerning the design and placement of stained glass windows to be installed in the nave aisles, transept, and clerestory of the Cathedral. The Smithsonian Institution’s Archives of American Art contain the surviving correspondence between Emerson and Burnham. The correspondence between the Dean of the Cathedral and Wilbur Burnham tells a story of the collaboration of patron and artist in the commissioning of artwork. The correspondence also reveals the joy and the tension that always exists between artist and patron.

The first letter still in existence is dated December 17, 1937 and is from Mr. Burnham to the Dean:

Upon my return from Florida this morning, I learned from Mr. Herdman that you had been in to my studio to talk with me concerning a stained glass project for Trinity Cathedral, Cleveland, Ohio. I am terribly sorry that I was not here when you called; but Mr. Herdman told me that you would like to have me go to Cleveland, which I would be most happy to do at any time that would suit your convenience. I shall look forward with great pleasure to meeting you. Would you advise me to bring any designs or photographs of windows that I have made, which might possibly be of assistance to you.

In the following letter, dated December 22, 1937, Emerson outlines his wishes and ideas for the project:

I have not presented the matter completely to the Vestry as I am first trying to get people interested in windows, but there is a row of one half dozen on one side of the Nave on the first floor which must be “picture windows”. They are all small windows. I am enclosing a drawing to show you the size. On that side my present plan for the windows is the following: “Christ Blessing the Children”, “Christ Preaching”, “Christ Healing”, “Christ Forgiving”, “Christ Praying”, and the last one the “Calvary Window” or “Christ Sacrificing”. Frankly, I would like to see you do those windows because I think you could do those particular windows best. If you have any sketches suggesting any of these subjects, I should be glad to have them.

What I may be able to accomplish will, of course, depend upon the price of the windows. The Wright Company here have one on the opposite side nearly finished and I had planned to have them do the four on that side which are undone. Their prices are most reasonable. Let me know if you are at all interested.

Burnham replies in a letter dated January 3, 1938:

I am sending you with this letter a brochure, in which I have listed some of the many important windows which I have made throughout the United States, and a few in Europe, and I hope that it will be helpful to you. If you would like a more complete list, I would be very glad to send it to you. The thought has occurred to me that since you are launching a stained glass project for your beautiful Cathedral, an illustrated lecture with colored lantern slides might be of great interest to your parishioners at this particular time. I am deeply interested, of course, in your project, and I sincerely hope that my work may ultimately be represented in the Cathedral; and if you think that a lecture will be timely, I will be most happy to arrange my time so that I can give a lecture at the Cathedral. I am going to try to complete a design for one of the aisle windows, so that you may have it in your hands before your Senior Warden sails for Honolulu, and I hope that it will be possible for you really to get things moving before Mr. Mather leaves town.

It was indeed a great pleasure to meet you and to see the Cathedral again, and I hope that it will be possible for me to see you again in the very near future.

On January 20, 1938, Emerson discusses the price of each window:

You will probably not get this letter until you return home. Your letter came this afternoon. I hope you will be here tomorrow as I have many things to talk over with you. In case I miss you the situation is this. The Vestry, on Tuesday, authorized me to employ you for that row of windows on the basis you suggest, at $600 a window, with the understanding that the windows will be put in only as I secure donors for them, and that the designs shall be satisfactory in each case to the donor and to the Building Committee.

Emerson’s letter of January 20th also contains criticisms of Burnham’s designs, a theme that would occur frequently in later correspondence:

Speaking of the suggestion for a window, which you sent to me, I think it is a very lovely window. My only question is whether the faces aren’t a little “pretty”. I realize that you drew them to match what we have already got in, but if you were to have practically that whole Nave on the first floor you might do them in a little more medieval atmosphere, which is your usual type. Having so many you could make a unity of your own.

What this letter amounts to is that I have got you started and I think we can work out things happily together. I do hope I can see you.

Burnham comes to the Cathedral in late January, and in his letter of January 27th he states his joy in being able to launch the project, which will take him two years to complete:

It was good to see you on Tuesday and to be able to have such a long and interesting chat with you concerning your glass project, and I am delighted beyond expression to know that through you I have been given an opportunity to really get started on some of the aisle window (sic). It is going to be a real joy to work with you in connection with this series of windows. I deeply appreciate, also, your wanting me to design and make the three windows in the transept, and as soon as you can let me have an architect’s drawing, I will begin on designs.

Go to: next section / previous section /main index