Emmeline Elliott
Losing an old family recipe can be devastating. So can losing a secret recipe for stained glass windows.
Dr. Barbara Johnson will give a presentation on South Dakota’s stained glass windows as part of the Madison Area Arts Council Chautauqua Series. She’ll speak at the Mochavino Coffee and Wine Bar in Madison at 2 p.m. August 22. This program is made possible by the South Dakota Humanities Council, an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Johnson will talk about how stained glass is made, its different styles, subject matter of the windows, its history and individuals and companies that produce stained glass.
Stained glass gets its color by adding metal oxides, Johnson said. For instance, gold is added to get red, copper is added for green and uranium is added to make yellow. Sometimes secret recipes are used to create a particularly vibrant color, but when the recipes are lost, the color often can’t be duplicated.
Stained glass doesn’t always have to be colored, Johnson said, but can be constructed in a way that causes prisms to disperse rainbows from light shining through the glass.
Different kinds of glass include opalescent, which has a milky look, and Munich pictorials, which have pictures painted on using metal oxides that are melted onto the glass.
“What I like to talk about is the story that they tell,” Johnson said.
The windows are products of the community’s people and culture, Johnson said. The stories on a window – and the window’s size – can give clues as to what that community values as important.
“Stained glass has inspired people for a long time,” Johnson said.
A stained glass scholar often deals with the challenge of identifying who made the window, as the artists don’t usually sign their work, especially if it is in a church. They feel that this is a form of advertising and would be an affront to God, Johnson said. One way to tell who made the window is by looking at how objects like leaves and faces are designed.
Stained glass windows are commonly found in religious, commercial, residential and government buildings, Johnson said. She’s even come across barns with stained glass. Many Madison homes built between 1910 and 1920 included simply designed stained glass, she said.
“Everybody had to have their own little piece of beauty,” Johnson said.
Johnson will spend part of her presentation discussing the stained glass in Madison. She will include windows in the First Baptist Church, United Methodist Church, St. Thomas Catholic Church and Trinity Lutheran Church. Johnson found some of these churches, like Trinity Lutheran Church, have a well-documented history of its stained glass windows while others have windows with a bit more mystery to them, such as a window in the choir loft of St. Thomas Catholic Church that is decorated with shamrocks and the heart of Ireland. She also came across some stained glass windows that were recently uncovered behind paneling in Beadle Hall at Dakota State University.
Johnson has researched stained glass windows for about two years. She received a grant in 2010 from the South Dakota Humanities Council to research the stained glass windows of South Dakota. Johnson spoke at this year’s rededication ceremony of the state capitol about the building’s stained glass windows. Johnson, of Aberdeen, has a Ph.D. in English from the University of Connecticut.
Johnson hopes her talk will inspire local groups and individuals to look into their community’s windows and document what they find.
“My goal isn’t to be the expert but to interest other people,” Johnson said. “There’s nothing like going and looking at the stained glass yourself. It’s very beautiful and accessible.”
MAAC meetings are held the first Thursday of every month at 7 p.m. at The BrickHouse Community Arts Center at 106 S.E. 2nd St. in Madison.
