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After working in Pittsburgh, New York, and Boston, Charles J. Connick opened his stained glass studio at 9 Harcourt Street, Back Bay, Boston in April, 1913. From this time until it closed in 1986, the Connick Studio designed impressive windows for churches, cathedrals, chapels, schools, hospitals, and libraries throughout the United States and abroad.
Using pure, intense color and strong linear design, this guild of artists led the modern revitalization of medieval stained glass craftsmanship in the United States. Their work reflected a strong interest in symbolism in design and color, and stressed the importance of the relationship between the window's design and its surrounding architecture. As if with one mind and one pair of hands, the craftsmen in the Connick Studio worked collectively on their windows like the 12th- and 13th- century artisans whose craft inspired them.
Charles Connick died in 1945, leaving what he said was "only incidentally a business" to the craftsmen. For 41 years they continued to receive commissions and design windows in the Connick tradition as Charles J. Connick Associates. Sadly, they were forced to close the workshop in 1986 because it was impracticable for them to continue; the workers were growing older and the modern high-rises of Copley Square threatened the light source essential to their work. The Charles J. Connick Stained Glass Foundation Ltd. was established in 1985 as a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. Its mission is to promote the true understanding of the glorious medium of color and light and to preserve and perpetuate the Connick tradition of stained glass.
Before the Connick Studio closed, the craftsmen agreed to give most of the studio records, working drawings, and related materials to the Fine Arts Department, the Boston Public Library (BPL) to be preserved and made available to researchers. This archival collection is named the Charles J. Connick Studio Records. In 2009, The Charles J. Connick Stained Glass Foundation gave additional materials to Rotch Library of Architecture and Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), as the Connick Stained Glass Foundation Archives.
Selected materials at the BPL and at MIT are available to scholars, historians and researchers. The extensive archival collections contain glass panels and paintings; cartoons for more than 5,000 commissions; watercolor sketches of stained glass windows; light boxes illuminating glass panels; correspondence, insurance appraisals and financial records; clippings about American stained glass craftsmen and Connick Studio and Connick Associates; photographs, glass plate negatives, color slides and blueprints; brass stencils and copper printing plates; and an extensive reference library.
Because the collections were stored in the studio for 73 years, much of the material is extremely fragile due to storage conditions—exposure to dust and the vast fluctuations of the temperature and humidity in the workshop—and due to the acidic nature of paper and the type of glue used. Hundreds of the drawings are very brittle and unrolling them, even with great care, causes the paper to crack. The earliest cartoons, those from the first commissions, are in particular danger. Thus, while some of the items are available for study, others can be handled only by a professional conservator.
The Connick Foundation works in concert with the Boston Public Library and Rotch Library, M.I.T. to conserve, maintain, and enhance the archival collections and to assist the public in understanding this art form by providing lectures, publications, films and tours. For information about the Connick Studio Records at the BPL contact the Fine Arts Reference Department, Boston Public Library, 700 Boylston Street, Boston, MA 02116 (
fineartsref AT bpl DOT org/617-859-2275). For Fine Arts Department hours, see www.bpl.org. The materials in the BPL Connick archives are available by appointment only. For information about the Connick Stained Glass Foundation Archives at MIT, contact Rotch Library, 77 Massachusetts Avenue Room 7-238, Cambridge, MA 02139,
rotch-ref AT mit DOT edu
/ 617 324-4453. Online access to the MIT archive is being prepared.
April, 2011
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