Colonial Themes in Stained Glass, Home and Abroad: A Visual Survey

Abstract

This photoessay presents a number of carefully chosen images of stained glass, found both in Britain and its former colonial empire, in order to provide an impression of the range and type of window that engaged colonial/imperial subject matter during the Victorian and Edwardian periods. These images are accompanied by a short analytical overview, supported with critical commentaries on each image (or set of images). The images are arranged with a view to highlighting how certain themes of concern to Victorian society were communicated, such as civilizational advancement, material improvement, moral and spiritual edification, the pioneering impulse, and the appropriation and symbolic reassignment of local contexts (such as non-European flora and fauna). The aim of the essay is to offer some insights on how stained glass might be understood as a medium through which cultural values were transmitted and reinforced afar, and imperial ideals were displayed and maintained at ‘home’. Notions of spectacle, sacrifice, heroics, duty, history, and trusteeship emerge as some of the key and recurring tropes and mechanisms that stained glass (as a medium) aspired to employ to great effect. The essay also touches upon the processes behind the procurement and transportation of stained glass across the world, considering which manufacturers were involved and in what capacity. In the context of global and imperial commercialization, it highlights how the material and medium of stained glass may be seen as a category/object through which cultural, industrial, and commercial networks were established across the British world.