For centuries, James Powell and Sons —popularly known as Whitefriars — was among England’s most prominent glass companies. When the company closed its stained glass business in 1973 and the rest of the company in 1980, its archives were acquired by the Victoria and Albert and the Museum of London. In 2008, the Museum of London gifted 1,800 rolls of Whitefriars stained glass cartoons to the Rakow Research Library. The rolls contain an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 items that document the making of hundreds of stained glass installations in over 30 countries.

Discovering the Whitefriars Collection is a project to conserve, digitize, and make accessible the Rakow Library’s collection of Whitefriars stained glass cartoons. It is a collaborative effort between the Rakow Library, the Museum of London, and West Lake Conservators. The project goals are three-fold: select rolls to be preserved and digitized; preserve, test, and evaluate those rolls; develop a website for the digitized works that unites the cartoons with other digitized Whitefriars collections, crowdsourced photos of the stained glass windows, and information about the installation sites.

Projected Outcomes

• Study collection of conserved stained glass cartoons
• Whitefriars website
• Educational programming and pop-up exhibitions

Project news

• Complete coverage of the 2017 Whitefriars project on Storify
• "'[The window is] special, it's very special. And now knowing how important this is to the research library, it's even more gratifying knowing that we have it here in Binghamton,' said parishioner Jeff Fellows." Source: WIVT/News 34 Binghamton: Corning Museum of Glass researchers look at local historic window, August 1, 2017
• "'Binghamton is connected with churches in England, with churches in Soloman Islands, churches in Canada and Australia, those places, through their windows,' said Jim Galbraith, Chief Librarian of the Corning Rakow Research Library." Source: WBNG Binghamton: Special stained glass window now at Binghamton church, August 1, 2017
• Complete coverage of the 2016 Whitefriars project on Storify
• "'There’s a community feel to this collection,' said Jim Galbraith, chief librarian at the Rakow. 'Because there are so many different installations, and so many countries represented, it’s an opportunity, if we share the information, to have communities around the world trace the history and creation of these iconic art pieces.'" Source: McElfresh, Megan. "The Whitefriars Cartoons Come to Life." Stained Glass, 111.4 (Winter 2016): 28-33.
• Complete coverage of the 2015 Whitefriars project on Storify
• “With greater access to this historic material, people across the world may search for and view the preparatory tracings of stained glass found in their local churches and cathedrals.” Source: Hyperallergic: Preserving the Templates for Historic Stained Glass Found Around the World, August 5, 2015
• “The Corning Museum, with West Lake Conservators in Skaneateles, N.Y., will finally start gingerly unfurling sheets that depict scrollwork borders and biblical figures." Source: The New York Times: Conserving Stained-Glass Records at Corning Museum, November 13, 2014

Partners & Funding

The first year of this project was supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services’ National Leadership Grant for Libraries (#LG-55-14-0110-14).