The 2009 American Glass Guild Conference
July 16-20, 2009
Buffalo, New York
2009 Conference
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Jacquelann Killian
The Stained Glass Designs of Alice Cordelia Morse
Ohio-born Alice Cordelia Morse (1863–1961) moved to New York with her family and studied at the Woman’s Art School at Cooper-Union, later taking classes at Alfred University and completing graduate courses also at Cooper-Union. Like the work of many female designers of the late-nineteenth century, that of Alice C. Morse has been lifted out of obscurity due to recent scholarship by Mindell Dubansky of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This research was based on a collection of book covers donated by Morse in 1923. Morse is perhaps best known from this scholarship as a book cover designer and illustrator, both activities which she achieved public recognition for during her life. Immediately after her graduation from Cooper-Union, however, she studied for a year in the studio of John La Farge, and then spent the next four years “painting glass and studying design” at Louis C. Tiffany & Company, until she abandoned it in favor of book cover design, and devoted herself to art education later in life.
In 1943, Morse donated book cover designs to the Cooper-Union Museum (later Cooper-Hewitt), the collection of paintings, drawings, and decorative arts she studied during her design training. The same year she donated seventy drawings for stained glass windows, reflecting her work during a period of 1884–90 in the studios of the two most prominent New York stained glass designers. A recent inventory of the collection revealed these drawings, which have not been previously published. This presentation will use Morse's stained glass drawings and their notation and relate them to ecclesiastic and residential commissions, and also use the drawings as a tool to better understand the design process at the commercial level in the nineteenth century.
About Jacquelann Killian
At Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Jacquelann Killian is Curatorial Assistant in the Drawings, Prints, and Graphic Design Department where she researches nineteenth century works in that collection. Prior to this, she was project manager and historic interior consultant for the restoration of the Armour-Stiner (Octagon) House, a National Historic Landmark in Irvington-on-Hudson, New York.
Jacquelann graduated from Pennsylvania State University and obtained her Master's degree in the History of Decorative Arts from the Bard Graduate Center for Decorative Arts, Design, and Culture in New York. She enjoys photographing architecture and in her spare time she is an active member of the Board of the Metropolitan Chapter of the Victorian Society in America.
