Reflections of American Spirituality
Graduation Date
Spring 2000
Document Type
Master's Thesis
Document Form
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Program Name
Humanities
First Reader
Leslie Ross, PhD
Second Reader
Patricia Dougherty, OP, PhD
Abstract
The Franz Mayer and F. X. Zettler stained glass studios of Munich, Germany were the largest producers of stained glass exported to the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In the San Francisco Bay Area both firms sold over four hundred windows between 1889 and 1959 with the majority sold between 1889 and 1927. This study focuses on the critical events, key individuals, and artistic movements that contributed most significantly to the popularity of Mayer and Zettler stained glass in the Bay Area. The four foci of the chapters are the ties between the developing American Catholic Church and the changes in nineteenth and early twentieth century American culture, spirituality, and artistic taste as well as the business practices and successful marketing strategies employed by the Mayer and Zettler studios in promoting their windows in the United States.