{"id":104185,"date":"2021-11-15T11:57:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-15T16:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/department.va.gov\/?p=104185"},"modified":"2025-09-05T16:37:19","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T20:37:19","slug":"lincoln-grant-stain-glass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/department.va.gov\/history\/lincoln-grant-stain-glass\/","title":{"rendered":"Lincoln and Grant in Lights: The Grand Army of the Republic\u2019s 1887 Memorial Stained-Glass Windows"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\""Cathedral-glass"<\/a>
“Cathedral-glass” window, 1887, at the former Western Branch NHDVS, Leavenworth. (VA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

A lucky few National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers (NHDVS)<\/a> branches were intended to display elegant stained-glass windows of Civil War heroes, artifacts from temporary commemorative arches built for the Grand Army of the Republic\u2019s<\/a> (GAR) 21st Annual Encampment in September 1887 in St Louis, Missouri. The oversized windows \u2014 called \u201ccathedral glass\u201d or \u201ctransparencies,\u201d and incorporated into state-of-the-art \u201cilluminations\u201d at the gathering \u2013 are as fascinating as components of a technology-driven display as they are for their artistic beauty. After sunset, electric lights would bring the images of President Abraham Lincoln<\/a> and General Ulysses S. Grant to life for onlookers in the streets below, in the way that neon and Jumbotrons would have first awed twentieth-century audiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of four windows proposed, only two are known to survive. The only one currently on exhibit is of President Lincoln at the VA Eastern Kansas Health Care System – Dwight D. Eisenhower VA Medical Center<\/a> in Leavenworth, Kansas (former Western Branch<\/a> NHDVS). The Lincoln memorial window had been in the \u201cnew\u201d Queen Anne-style Ward Memorial Hall (Building 29) built in 1888; it was likely removed in the early 1990s for restoration before being reinstalled in a new domiciliary (Building 160).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The other window, of General Ulysses S. Grant in an equestrian pose, is in storage at the Clement J. Zablocki Veterans Affairs Medical Center<\/a> in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (former Northwestern Branch<\/a> NHDVS). It had been installed in the Victorian Ward Memorial Hall (Building 41) built 1881. Long-obscured by interior alterations to the theater, around 2017 the glass panels were dismantled and secured. They await restoration funding and a new location for reinstallation.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

GAR posts have a history of creating resplendent memorial windows. GAR was an influential Union Veterans\u2019 organization that lobbied for legislation<\/a>, care and education of Civil War Veterans\u2019 orphans and widows, and more. Annual national encampments attracted Veterans and visitors alike from 1866 to 1949; besides GAR business, local tours, dinners, music, memorial events and the parade punctuated the gatherings.<\/p>\n\n\n