Herbert Hoover Middle School Stained Glass – San Jose CA

Description

Several artists collaborated to create this beautiful stained glass window for Herbert Hoover Middle School. A description (pictured below) of the window by participating artist Norval L. Gill includes the following:

"Mary Dill Henry, Robert E. Spray and Norval L. Gill were among the half-dozen artists and craftsmen who produced this stained glass window in 1937-1938 at the Federal Arts Project in Oakland…Edgar D. Taylor was the designer of the window. It depicts a medieval scene in which a manuscript is presented to a king and queen…

This stained glass window was fabricated in the traditional way with the various pieces of colored glass cut and shaped to match the full size 'cartoon' of the design. The space used by the lead channeling joins the pieces into a whole window. The 1200 individual pieces of colored glass were [mixed?] with a black opaque vitreous enamel 'paint; which, when dry was scratched or rubbed away to reveal the underlying color. The [glass?] pieces were then kiln fired to fuse the enamel to the glass and then assembled with the lead and framework of iron as may be structurally required by the design. This process can be dated back to the 14th century. Upon close inspection, you will notice that the artistic window is actually placed in front of the building's original window. This is most apparent if you view the window from the outside. This is considered to be the only public school stained glass window in the United States created as a W.P.A. project."