Event offers sneak peek at library's stained glass

Although she didn't know it at the time, working at Yale University's Sterling Memorial Library gave Gay Walker inspiration for her master's thesis and two books about artist G. Owen Bonawit.

Bonawit created stained-glass windows for Yale and a number of other universities, schools, churches and libraries, including Kent Library at Southeast Missouri State University.

Walker, the special collections librarian at Reed College in Portland, Oregon, gave a presentation Wednesday titled "Tracking Bonawit's Ghost: Discovering the Man Behind Southeast Missouri State University's Beautiful Stained Glass Windows" at Sadie's Place at Kent Library. About 45 people attended, matching the number of panels the library has.

An evening lecture titled "Bonawit Revealed: A Heavily Illustrated Talk about Southeast Missouri State University's Stained Glass Windows and their Creator, G. Owen Bonawit" also was Wednesday.

Walker started working at Sterling Memorial Library in 1972. The library at Yale was designed by James Gamble Rogers, who also designed Kent Library. Bonawit was one of Rogers' favorite stained glass artists.

This G. Owen Bonawit stained-glass window panel of Mark Twain is one of 45 that will be unveiled during Kent Library's 75th-anniversary celebration Nov. 7. (Laura Simon)

Walker worked her way through various offices at the Yale library, seeing different samples of Bonawit's work.

She attended Wesleyan University part time while working at Sterling to earn one of her two master's degrees.

"I decided to learn more about the impressive stained glass in the library and its maker and selected that subject for my master's thesis. It was an excellent topic with daily reminders," Walker said.

However, not much had been written about Bonawit, and Walker said that's still the case. Since she began doing research in 1979, there was no Internet, so she delved into primary sources, even placing an open letter in a stained-glass magazine.

She immersed herself in stained glass, learning about the art in early 20th-century America, medieval glass techniques in Europe and many other topics.

Bonawit's father was an illustrator and designer and his uncle was a glassman, so Bonawit was an apprentice in his shop. He went into business for himself and hired other people. Walker said Bonawit first wanted to create a full range of decorative arts, but wound up focusing on stained glass.

She said Bonawit was an excellent freehand artist, but used illustrations for many of his panes, as well.

He used vitrifiable glass paint in his work, Walker said.

"They put ground glass in it and it fuses to the glass permanently when you bring it up to a certain temperature. It's because the very surface of the glass starts to melt and it becomes permanent," Walker said.

The cost of one of his panels from 1930 to 1940 would have been $25 to $50. Now, she said she would guess it's upward of $1,000 for some of the detailed work.

Bonawit stopped making stained-glass panels in 1941, having gone through some "domestic upheaval" involving infidelity and divorce, and went to Arizona. There, Walker said, Bonawit worked for the government, taking photos of missile launches at White Sands and the building of Parker Dam.

"He had another life afterwards. He just left the business," Walker said.

After Walker's afternoon presentation, attendees received a sneak peek at the 45 remounted panels, which will be unveiled at a 75th-anniversary celebration for Kent Library from 6 to 9 p.m. Nov. 7.

Dennis Dobson of Cape Girardeau peppered Walker with questions about Bonawit and planned to go to Wednesday evening's presentation.

"This is very excellent, high-talent work," Dobson said. "You can tell he's a great artist, and doing that freehand, this is where you can really appreciate the art of that time because it's skill."

The day's events were made possible in part by a grant from the Missouri Humanities Council. With the grant, a yearlong celebration of Kent Library's past and future has been planned for by Roxanne Dunn, Mary Christy and the Kent Library 75th Anniversary Committee.

rcampbell@semissourian.com

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