Shining Art of Tiffany Studios and The Tiffany Girls

by Lynn U. Watson

Among the notable collections in the city of Chicago, art from Louis Comfort Tiffany's glass studios is prominent. You need to know where to look. 

In 1674 Father Jacques Marquette established the first European settlement in the area. This French Jesuit priest interacted with the Native Americans in the area. What would become the city of Chicago was born. 

A landmark building in Chicago's loop, The Marquette Building, is a beautiful tribute to Marquette's story. Growing up in the Chicago area, I was not aware of this treasure. I've learned from my research that many people walk past this jewel on Dearborn Street every day and have no idea what's inside. 

A few years ago, I had the opportunity to visit. The murals you see below are Tiffany Glass mosaics depicting the story. They are also very difficult to photograph. I've included one close up as well as an attempt to give an idea of the mural surrounding the balcony inside the building. The mural is made up of 200,000 pieces of colored glass and installed in 1895.

Tiffany Glass murals in lobby of Marquette Building, Chicago

personal photos 

Prior to the Tiffany Company works, stained glass was often painted glass. The Louis C. Tiffany Company was established in 1878 in New York City. Through his work, the glass making process evolved, creating intricate color and color blends to make the shiny glimmering pieces allowing light to come through and dazzle the beholder. 

The Marquette murals are among the many examples of the Tiffany art found throughout Chicago. Louis Comfort Tiffany's exhibit at the Columbian Exhibit (Chicago World's Fair) in 1893 earned him 54 medals.

Early in the company's history, Louis recognized the talent that women could bring to this medium. Gentleness, attention to fine detail, finesse handling the glass pieces, their eye for beauty and color. At the time most studios gave full credit to the lead male artist. While women's giftedness in the arts contributed much to his work, it would be years before The Tifffany Girls would be recognized.

Agnes Northrup, Clara Driscoll, and a group of approximately 30 other women were often the artists behind the beautiful works. The women had not been involved in the Marquette murals, but played a huge role in many other pieces. One of those is the 6,000 square foot, 1.6 million-piece dome ceiling of Marshall Fields (now Macy's) in Chicago. 

Tiffany Glass dome ceiling in Marshall Fields, Chicago

personal photo

Observing this gorgeous dome in the Chicago Cultural Center touched me deeply. The building was originally the Chicago Public Library. The dome was installed in 1897. This is the library my mom would have frequented growing up. I stood their mesmerized, imagining her and her friends studying and discovering new books to read while surrounded by all this beauty. 

 The dome was designed by Clara Driscoll, and executed by her team, The Women's Glass Cutting Department. The women became known as The Tiffany Girls. The dome is 38 feet wide. It's 243 sections are comprised of 30,000 pieces of Tiffany Farvile glass.

Tiffany Dome in Chicago Cultural Center, originally the Chicago Public Library

personal photo

The Tiffany Girls' work is prominently featured in the windows of Second Presbyterian Church in Chicago. These photos were taken in 2022. The windows were completely restored this year. Impossible to see in the photos, layering of the glass created depth of color and a feel of movement as light filtered through. The techniques were Louis', but without the work of the Women of the Cutting Room, the results would not be nearly as rich.

 

Agnes began working for Louis Tiffany in the early 1880s, and was the first women's supervisor of The Women's Glass Cutting Department. Clara Driscoll joined the company in 1886. Because the rules were very strict, engaged or married women were not allowed to work at the Tiffany studios. Clara stepped down for three years because of her marriage, but she returned after the tragic death of her husband. She became the supervisor of the department, which employed 30 to 50 women at a time. As supervisor she was paid $10,000 per year, making her one of the highest paid women in New York City at the time.

Tiffany lamps are highly sought after art. Louis Tiffany took credit for the designs. When the dragonfly lamp was introduced at the 1900 Paris Exposition Universelle and received a bronze medal, it was revealedClara had designed the now famous Dragonfly Tiffany Lamp. She directed her very talented group of ladies in creating the piece.

Tiffany lamps originally sold for $400 to $15,000. They now go at auction for up to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Most of them were designed by Clara Driscoll. 

Dragonfly Lamp designed and created by Clara Driscoll

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lámpara_Tiffany

Clara Driscoll

https://cy.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tallmadge,_Ohio

NOTE: Tiffany Glass is found around the world. Since Chicago is the setting for my upcoming book and for a part of the previous book in the Promised Destiny series, I've focused on the Tiffany art in Chicago. There's much more even there, that I have not included. Second Presbyterian Church and the Tiffany lamps are mentioned in the books.

Award-winning author, Lynn U. Watson's journey is a testament to creativity and compassion. Nurtured by her grandmother's love of needlework, Lynn built a custom clothing business and created The Lynn'n Butterfly Collection (x-stitch design leaflets) with her husband Steve. Her creative spirit extended beyond fabric. Lynn became a certified reflexologist, opening Footsteps in Eden, a haven where she uses touch therapy and prayer to relax her clients. Today Lynn, Steve, and their feline overlord, Jasmine, call Bartlett, Tennessee home. You will find Lynn there, Stepping through time, Stitching stories of faith.

A rejected ballet dancer stumbles upon a key leading 

to a mystery quest six generations in the making.

Release Date: February 8, 2027

Pre-Order on Amazon.

Women of Resistance: Willemiena Brouwman

 

Just twenty years old when her beloved Netherlands was invaded and occupied by Nazi German, Willemiena Bouwman was social worker. Her father was Reverend J.J. Bouwman who’d been forced into hiding because he forbid a member of the National Socialist Movement of the Netherlands (a Dutch fascist, then later Nazi organization) from taking part in religious services.

It is believed she joined the Dutch resistance shortly thereafter. Her boyfriend, Willem Peter “Wim” Speelman, was an economics student and one of the publishers of the underground newspaper, Trouw (“True” or “Allegiance”). He also wrote content for various resistance pamphlets and the Dutch magazine, Vrij Nederland (“Free the Netherlands).

By the spring of 1941, Wim was in hiding, and the following year Willemiena joined him because of

increased scrutiny by Dutch and German authorities. Taking on the alias Mien van Trouw, she emerged periodically to distribute the newspaper as well as courier messages to resistance supporters. According to several sources, including Yad Vashem, Willemiena was deeply involved in the rescue of Jewish children, preventing them from being persecuted or deported.

When families would be rounded up and taken to Hollandsche Schouwburg, a Jewish theater converted to a holding area, the children would be sent across the street to “the Crèche,” formerly a Jewish daycare center, then Mien and others would spirit the children away to safe houses in Friesland and Groningen. She made dozens of trips. By the end of 1943, the number of rescues required had declined, so she went back to working at the newspaper and couriering messages. Wim, her fiancé by then, had been arrested but managed to escape and moved their activities (not specified in my sources) to Amsterdam.

They remained in the city for a year working heavily with the underground, then Wim was arrested again, this time during a raid to the printing office. He was executed two weeks later. Not to be deterred, Willemiena/Mien took over his position and continued to operate the publication. Ten weeks later, she was able to publish the liberation edition on May 5, 1945.

After the war, she returned to social work and married fellow Trouw courier, Gerrit Dijkstra. Widowed at some piont, she later married a second time, to Henk Vooren, and in 1992, she was declared “Righteous Among the Nations” by Yad Vashem for her rescue of David de La Penha and Barend Stempel. Willemiena passed away on March 3, 2007 at the age of 87.

____________________

Danish Days

Can hearts filled with hate find love?

Near the end of the “second war to end all wars,” Norwegian American OSS agent Frida Westgard finds herself assigned to Denmark, of all places. Initially sent as a radio operator, she is then transferred to Copenhagen to collect intelligence. A job made more dangerous when she becomes entangled in local resistance activities led by the handsome man known only as Rejsende–traveler.

Stig Arenfeldt has hated the Germans for as long as he can remember, so when they invade and occupy his beloved Denmark, he jumps at the chance to join the resistance. Now, five years later, the war may finally be at an end, but he won’t quit until the last soldier is gone…or dead. Then he’s paired with the attractive American agent who preaches forgiveness. A concept that has no place in his life. Unfortunately, the more they’re together, the more her words infiltrate his soul, and he begins to dread the day she’ll walk out of his life.

Purchase Link: https://books2read.com/u/3LoGlw

Linda Shenton Matchett writes happily-ever-after historical Christian fiction about second chances and

women who overcome life’s challenges to be better versions of themselves. A native of Baltimore, Maryland, she was born a stone’s throw from Fort McHenry (of Star-Spangled Banner fame) and has lived in historical places all her life. She is a volunteer docent and archivist at the Wright Museum of WWII. She now lives in central New Hampshire where she explores the history of this great state, immerses herself in the imaginary worlds created by other authors, and drinks copious amounts of tea.

Sources:
https://www.geni.com/people/Willemiena-Bouwman/6000000017511751165
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willemiena_Bouwman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9DWNOhHK_g&t=548s
https://collections.yadvashem.org/en/righteous/4039270
https://www.nationaalarchief.nl/onderzoeken/nieuws/archief-van-stichting-1940-1945-opvraagbaar-bij-het-nationaal-archief
https://www.st4045.nl/buitengewoon-pensioen
https://oorlogsspullen.nl/product/original-wwii-dutch-resistance-newspaper-groningen-trouw/

Photo Credits:
Willemiena Bouwman: Courtesy Emanuel Koning (geni.com)
Amsterdam 1944: By Adrianus Swart - from the collection curated by Netwerk Oorlogsbronnen and donated through a partnership program. Public Domain
Trouw newspaper: Courtesy Oorlogsspullen.nl

The Cornish Pasty - Fun Facts and Delicious History

By Mary Dodge Allen

Why does a Cornish pasty have a distinctive D-shape and a crimped crust? 

The earliest mention of the pasty in Cornwall and Devon dates back to the early 1500s. This meal of meat, vegetables and/or cheese wrapped inside a thick pastry crust is considered the national meal of Cornwall.

Cornish Pasties (Cornish Pasty Association)

The Cornish Pasty - A Proud Part of Cornwall's Heritage

More than 300 years ago, Cornish tin and copper miners began eating a pasty as their mid-day meal because it could be eaten without utensils, and the thick pastry crust could keep its contents warm. Traditionally, pasties were eaten from end to end. Miners often carved their initials in the far end, to identify their particular pasty.

The Cornish word for pasty is “hoggan,” which evolved into popular slang as "oggy." Tradition states that women who had baked pasties for the miners would shout into the mine shaft: “Oggy, oggy, oggy!” and the miners would shout back: “Oi, oi, oi” when they were ready to eat. 

(You may recognize this chant as part of an Outback restaurant commercial).

Arsenic was often found in tin and copper mines, and arsenic dust was a known hazard. It has been said that the pasty’s thick crimped edge provided a convenient hand-hold that was discarded after eating the meal, to avoid arsenic poisoning from dusty hands. This rings true in the opinion of some historians. But other historians argue that the pasties were most likely wrapped in paper or muslin cloth bags to protect the miners from arsenic dust.

Few photos were taken inside the Cornish tin mines, and in the rare photo below, it appears that two of the seated miners in the foreground are holding pasties wrapped in something.

Undated photo of Cornish tin miners, (Cornish Pasty Association)

Pasties provided a convenient mid-day meal for all types of workers. Farmers, field workers and factory workers could leave in the morning, carrying a pasty in a jacket pocket.

Cornish Pasty Ingredients

Family recipes often varied, according to the food at hand. The crust was traditionally made of white flour, or barley flour (which was cheaper). It had to be thick enough to hold its delicious baked filling, and yet not too tough to eat.

The traditional pasty filling consisted of a small portion of meat such as beef or pork or even cheese, mutton or rabbit, along with a much larger portion of vegetables like potatoes, carrots, onions or turnips, seasoned with salt and pepper. 

The raw meat and vegetables were placed inside the crust and sealed with a prominent crimp. Then the pasty was baked long enough for its filling to become fully-cooked, tender and juicy, while the crust browned.

Vintage post card of a partially-eaten Cornish pasty (Wikipedia)

The Cornish Pasty Spreads Across the World

With the fluctuating economy of tin and copper, many Cornish miners – known for their mining expertise - emigrated to work in mines around the world. My great, great grandfather Nicholas emigrated from Cornwall with his young family in 1850 to work in a copper mine in Ontario, Canada. Years later, he moved his family to Michigan's Upper Peninsula, to work in the copper mines there.

Many Cornish miners emigrated to work in mines located in Pennsylvania, California and Nevada. While other Cornish miners relocated as far away as Mexico, Australia and New Zealand. 

Wherever Cornish miners and their families moved, they brought with them the traditional recipe for Cornish pasties. A Cornish festival is held annually in parts of Australia, and an annual Cornish Festival is also held in Real del Monte, Mexico. The Mexican pasty is called a "paste."

A Mexican "paste" (Wikipedia)

The Traditional Cornish Pasty 

I tasted my first Cornish pasty when I was a child, visiting relatives in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Unfortunately, the ancestral Cornish pasty recipe, handed down to my great-aunt in Michigan has been lost.

But I located a traditional Cornish pasty recipe online, at the website of The Salt Wind Catering Kitchen, located in Redruth, Cornwall (near the area my ancestors lived).

Click this link to see the recipe: Traditional Cornish Pasty Recipe

Traditional Cornish Pasty (The Salt Wind Catering Kitchen)

I plan to bake this traditional Cornish pasty for my family this holiday season.
If you enjoy baking, you might want to give it a try. Enjoy!

__________________

Mary Dodge Allen is currently finishing her sequel to Hunt for a Hometown Killer. She's won a Christian Indie Award, an Angel Book Award, and two Royal Palm Literary Awards (Florida Writer's Association). She and her husband live in Central Florida. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers and Faith Hope and Love Christian Writers. 

Website: www.marydodgeallen.com

Recent release, anthology devotional: El Jireh, The God Who Provides

Mary's story, entitled: A Mother's Desperate Prayer, describes her struggle with guilt and despair after her young son is badly burned in a kitchen accident. When we are at the end of all we have, El Jireh provides what we need. 

Click the link below to purchase on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/El-Jireh-God-Who-Provides/dp/1963611608

Mary's novel: Hunt for a Hometown Killer won the 2022 Christian Indie Award, First Place - Mystery/Suspense; and the 2022 Angel Book Award - Mystery/Suspense.

Click the link below to buy Hunt for a Hometown Killer at Amazon.com:

Hunt For A Hometown Killer: A Novel: Allen, Mary Dodge: 9781952369704: Amazon.com: Books

Link to Mary's Spotlight Interview:   Mary Dodge Allen Author Spotlight EA Book

How Adolf Hitler's War Machine Devastated Hundreds of Thousands of French Lives

By Donna Wichelman

Over the last several months, I've reprised a series I began in the spring of 2024, when I interviewed four survivors of World War II the previous October. In this article, I mention Madame Marie-José Delage, whose story you can read in the August 4, 2026 blog.

Madame Pierrette Couillandeau and Madame Marie-José Delage were still young children and friends in Libourne when France capitulated to Adolf Hitler’s German Army in June 1940. Like most French families, they were uneasy about the armistice France had signed in November 1919, ending the First World War. But while Madame Delage’s father had been wounded during World War I and experienced Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Mme Couillandeau’s father had a different experience.

Madame Couillandeau and Madame Marie-José Delage Pointing at a Bullet Hole still left in the Building Where Madame Delage Lived: Donna's Gallery October 2023

Believing another war was inevitable, France built the Maginot Line during the 1930s to counteract an attack by the Germans should hostilities arise. The Maginot Line was a series of concrete fortifications and weapons installations that ran from Belfort in the south, guarding the Belfort Gap where France, Germany, and Switzerland meet, to the Longuyon in the Moselle Valley. It stopped short of the Belgian border near the dense Ardennes forest, because Belgium adopted the policy of strict neutrality, which prevented France from building fortifications. A separate extension, the Alpine Line, ran along France's southeastern border with Italy.

But the German Army launched a surprise attack north of Saarbrücken in rugged forested terrain where no one expected, allowing them to break through French defenses, storming the country west and southward.

German Army Shows Japanese Officials Maginot Line
Everett Collection Inc / Alamy Stock Photo

Madame Couillandeau’s father was one of the French troops stationed in a village along the Maginot Line. He shouldn’t have been there. He was too old at age thirty-six and had two children to feed. He was also a baker, protected from military service by a law enacted during the French Revolution that said authorities could “commandeer bakeries and … keep the masses in bread.” But Mme Couillandeau’s father had not declared his status and ended up being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The men in Madame Couillandeau’s father’s unit took turns watching for German soldiers from the top of a church. One day, her father and one of his buddies were on the lookout but unaware their unit had pulled out. They were left behind to be caught by the Germans and made prisoners of war. 

Meanwhile, the head of the collaboratorist Vichy Government, Prime Minister Pierre Laval, developed a volunteer program called La Relève, The Relief, in June 1942 to help secure the release of French prisoners of war. Negotiating with Germany's General Plenipotentiary for Labor, Fritz Sauckel, they agreed to release one French prisoner of war for every three volunteer workers from France who would be willing to work in Germany on their war machine. 

The propaganda campaign reached out to workers in skilled trades, particularly in metalworking, engineering, and construction, and offered high wages and opportunities for professional training. 

But La Relève was not successful. The program couldn't provide enough volunteer workers. Estimates suggest that 80,000 to 90,000 prisoners of war out of more than a million still left in captivity were returned in exchange for 24,000 French workers. Madame Couillandeau’s father was fortunate to be one of them and returned to his family in 1943.

La Relève morphed into the compulsory work service (Service du travail obligatoire or STO) under Sauckel, requiring the forced enlistment and deportation of French men to Germany for the German war effort. As many as 650,000 men were sent to work camps from June 1942 to July 1944 to compensate for the loss of German manpower as more and more soldiers were needed at the Eastern Front.

In Paris, French men and women being chosen for work in GermanyDeparture of STO workers from the Paris-Nord station in 1943 https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/62/Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-J14405%2C_Paris%2C_Abreise_franz%C3%B6sischer_Kriegsarbeiter_nach_Deutschland.jpg

In Paris, French men and women being chosen for work in GermanyDeparture of STO workers from the Paris-Nord station in 1943
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/62/Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-J14405%2C_Paris%2C_Abreise_franz%C3%B6sischer_Kriegsarbeiter_nach_Deutschland.jpg

But even STO never achieved the numbers Sauckel wanted. The French began to evade the compulsory demands by joining the French Resistance--the Maquis. Historians estimate at least 200,000 French were actively involved in the Resistance. Broader estimates put numbers at 500,000.

Members of French Resistance March in Liberation Celebration in Libourne, France Libourne City Archives

Members of French Resistance March in Liberation Celebration in Libourne, France
Libourne City Archives

Though Madame Couillandeau’s father came home because of the prisoner exchange program, war still left its indelible effect on him. He could have avoided it if he had declared himself a baker from the start. Unfortunately, he did not. So when he returned and wanted his old occupation back and to play cards with friends in a bar on the square, he discovered they'd made a lot of money in the market while he had been a prisoner of war. It was a bitter pill to swallow, so he sold his shop and went to Bordeaux.

Boulangerie Spécialité Pan Gascon, Since the Reign of Louis XV in 1765 Donna’s Gallery, October 2023

Boulangerie Spécialité Pan Gascon, Since the Reign of Louis XV in 1765
Donna’s Gallery, October 2023

As I contemplated this real-life story, I was struck by the irony of how the war affected Madame Couillandeau's family as much as Madame Delage's. In different ways, both fathers had become casualties of war--Madame Delage's father developing PTSD during the First World War and escaping to Canada, and Madame Couillandeau's father to Adolf Hitler's war machine. In both cases, their families' lives would never be the same. It's something for all of us to ponder as we consider whose fathers and families will be destroyed by the nations still warring in our contemporary world.

Donna is an Angel Book Award-winning author of historical romance for A Song of Deliverance. Book 2, Rhythms of the Heart, is an interconnected stand-alone set in the same Victorian mining community of Georgetown, Colorado.

Weaving history and faith into stories of intrigue and redemption grew out of Donna's love of travel, history, and literature as a young adult while attending an international college in Wales, U.K. She enjoys developing plots that show how God's love abounds even in the profoundly difficult circumstances of our lives. Her stories reflect the hunger in all of us for love, belonging, and forgiveness.

Donna was a communications professional before becoming a full-time writer. Her short stories and articles have appeared in inspirational publications. Her romantic suspense novels, Light Out of Darkness and Undaunted Valor in her Waldensian Series, are available on Amazon. 

Donna and her husband of forty-two years participate in ministry at their local church in Colorado. They love spending time with their grandchildren and often bike, kayak, and travel. 

Author Spotlight: Cheryl Rae Johnson

Me with my parents at Ridgecrest Baptist Assembly in North Carolina
when I was around two years old.
Many years later, I would sign my first contract here with Elk Lake Publishing.

My childhood collection of Little House on the Prairie books, worn from a dedicated reader's devotion, sits proudly on my bookshelf, a reminder that as a little girl similar in age to its author, I imagined myself a modern day Laura Ingalls Wilder who would one day write her own story of a family moving from place to place – Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Montana – and the escapades those moves involved. And there were plenty, I assure you. Because my dad was a church planter, moving every few years was just a part of life.

My dad on the far left. First Baptist Church in Newton Falls, Ohio,
where I was born, is still going strong.

I never wrote those stories, but that seed was planted and nourished and continued to grow, waiting for God's perfect timing and just the right stories. All I needed was a small dog and my mother.

Bentley, a mini-dachshund, became a part of my youngest daughter's world when she was fifteen. A little over a year later, my mother moved in with us after my father passed away. Bentley was small, but his personality was large, and with every pounce he took through the house, my mind tumbled with a children's story. Bently does this, and Bentley does that until I had to get my thoughts on paper.

At the same time, my mother and I spent many afternoons at the dining table poring over her notebooks of family history and research, me asking questions about things she'd written, she asking her own questions about something she knew there was an answer to, God providing those answers. Miracles I will never forget.

A year later, she passed away, but the memories and the dreams lingered.

My mom lived an adventurous life!

In May 2016, I attended the Blue Ridge Mountains Writers' Conference at Ridgecrest in North Carolina, where Elk Lake Publishers offered a contract, and two Benny Books came to life.

Bently put his paw of approval on my children's book contract.

Click here to see the Benny books on Amazon.

When a group of writers from Elk Lake formed a collection of novellas, I jumped in, even though I'd never written a historical romance. I wanted to tell in fiction form my parents' story. With two wonderful mentors helping me, I wrote a well-received novella. And I wondered, what is next?

The fictional story, "Nobody Loves You Like Me,"
based on my parents, can be found
 in this collection of stories published by Elk Lake Publishing.

I had ideas born from the kitchen table with my mother. Irish immigrants who came during the potato famine. Fiddle players who worked the docks of New York City during the day and played the saloons at night, eventually leaving and making their way to Southeastern Tennessee, Alabama, Texas.

And while the stories of Chattanooga Hearts are fictional, there are whispers of ancestors throughout, of my parents' influence and of dreams that refused to die.

Click here to learn more about the books! 

Loving Miss Lucy, the fourth book in the series,
released yesterday, November 2! 

Loving Miss Lucy, Book4, released November 2, and the final book of the Chattanooga Hearts Series, The Master of Ceremonies, will be out Spring 2027, but a spin-off series is already in the works. Once again, my mind can hardly keep up!

Thank you for going down this memory lane with me and allowing me to share my books with you! 

Cheryl Rae Johnson writes historical romance novels set in the American South. She has made her home in all corners of the US but is now settled on the eastern edge of Texas, where she teaches writing and literature at her local university as well as ministers alongside her husband of over forty years in her local church. She can often be found drinking coffee and hanging out with her ever-growing brood of grandchildren. She loves to connect with her readers. You can join her here:

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