If this is Thursday it must be postcards, 430

“Adoration of the Christ Child”

Since this is the week before Christmas I am sharing this postcard with a photograph by C.L. Marsh of one of the two stained glass windows at Faith Chapel, Jekyll Island, Georgia.  The window was made by Maitland Armstrong and his daughter, Helen Maitland Armstrong.   It shows the Three Wise Men bringing gifts to the Christ child. The card is a Dexter Press of West Nyack, New York product and published by Marsh Post Card Service, Jacksonville, Florida.  It has the number 5127-D at the upper right corner on the reverse. 

The window is set in the eastern end of the chapel partly because the Wise Men came from the east but also so that the morning sun shines through illuminating the scene.  Faith Chapel was built in 1904 and used as a non-denominational chapel until 1942.  In 1947 the state of Georgia bought it and Jekyll Island.  Today it is administered by the Jekyll Island State Park Authority and has been open to the public since 1970.  The chapel was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971. 

David Maitland Armstrong, professionally known as Maitland Armstrong, worked with his friends, Louis Comfort Tiffany and John LaFarge in the 1880s.  In 1887 he formed his own firm called Maitland Armstrong and Company of New York.  His daughter, Helen Maitland Armstrong, joined him in the business and also became an important stained glass artist.  The second stained-glass window in the Faith Chapel is called “David’s Window” and was created by Louise Comfort Tiffany. 

Maitland Armstrong was born in New York on 15 April 1836 and died 26 May 1918.  He was educated at Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut.  In 1858 he traveled to Italy where he later became the American Counsul in Rome (1869-1871).  In 1878 he was appointed Director of American Fine Arts at the Paris Exposition Universelle.  As an artist he painted landscapes and country scenes and later worked with Tiffany making stained glass. 

Helen Maitland Armstrong was born 14 October 1869 while the family was living in Florence, Italy.  She worked both as a solo artist and also in partnership with her father.  She was one of the first women artists to work with stained glass and her work is considered among the finest produced in the late 19th and early 20th century.  She died 25 November 1948 in New York.

For additional information, see:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maitland_Armstrong
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Maitland_Armstrong
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faith_Chapel_(Jekyll_Island,_Georgia