Margaret Redmond

Margaret Redmond (1867–1948) was an American stained glass artist. Her work is characteristic of the medieval revival style, inspired by the fourteenth and fifteenth century stained glass of French and English cathedrals. She chose innovative glass materials, vibrant colors and thick leading designs for her windows, favored by the leading stained glass artists of the Arts and Crafts Movement in England. She is best known for her stained glass work from the 1920s to the 1940s, which can be found in churches, museums, homes and libraries from New Jersey to Maine.

Early life and education

Margaret Redmond was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1867 and lived in the city until 1905.

Redmond lived at 10 South 18th Street in Philadelphia, where she also painted, working primarily in watercolors. She bought a farm and old house in Nelson, New Hampshire in 1904, which she used as a summer home and art studio.

When Redmond returned to Boston, she worked with Charles Connick, the leader in American stained glass. Under Connick's supervision, Redmond acquired the skills of stained glass design and glazing. She created her first window, a glass medallion, under Connick's guidance.

Stained glass

halign = Redmond's style was characteristic of the modern medievalism employed by Ralph Adams Cram, but she did not enter his neo-Gothic brotherhood. Cram's world was a masculine one, and Redmond never worked on window designs for his numerous architectural projects. Indeed, "one mention of Cram's name would set Miss Redmond sputtering," later recalled one of her friends. She added, whether accurately, or not, that in Redmond's view, Cram "would not use her work because she was a woman and he did not believe in encouraging any woman in anything except housework."

In 1927, Redmond was interviewed by writer Helen Fitzgerald, of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle in her Newbury Street studio. Fitzgerald described Redmond's workspace as "a veritable treasure trove to the art lover. All about her color glows and flames. On the walls are sketches of colorful places ... and the light transmuted by the stained glass of her own making fills the room with rays of gold and ruby, emerald, violet and blue so intense that it stirs in the sensitive observer an emotion akin to ecstasy." Only two women stained glass artists are featured in the historic church, Redmond and Sarah Wyman Whitman Children's Room, Public Library, Englewood, New Jersey St. Peter's Episcopal Church Beverly, MA, 1933 St. Paul's Church, North Andover, MA, 1934 All Saints' Church Peterborough, New Hampshire, 1937 St. Savior's Church, Bar Harbor, Maine, 1940 St. Paul's Church, Peabody, Massachusetts, 1940