1: The Great Feast

Erika Szyszczak and John Collins
Feb 6, 2022
2 min read

Updated: Jan 22

The Parable of the Great Feast

West Aisle

WA-4

Dedicatory Inscription: "To the Glory of God and in memory of Jimellen Gottenstrater, the granddaughter of Dr. and Mrs Hiram W. Evans." [Jimellen was born June 21, 1939, and died June 16, 1945.

This Window is interesting because a photo/portrait of the person to whom the Window is dedicated was used:

Memorials in a Modern World Untitled Document

"As late as 1945, the London studio of William Glasby included portrait likeness for The Peachtree Christian Church, Atlanta Georgia. William's daughters, Barbara and Dulcima Glasby, designed almost all of the aisle windows after the themes of the parables of Christ. The Parable of the Great Feast shows the king welcoming guests to the feast, among them a little girl bearing the features of Jimellen Gottenstrater, to whom the window is dedicated. [fn 39 ]The difference between individualized features of the child and the generic images of the various other guest is striking, and church records substantiate the family's desire for a portrait likeness.

Fn 39 reads:

39. ^ The inscription reads "To the Glory of God and in Memory of Jimellen Gottenstrater, the granddaughter of Dr. and Mrs. Hiram W. Evans." Jimellen was born June 21, 1939, and died June 16, 1945. Donald S. McKelvey, An Interpretation of the Sanctuary and Clerestory Windows of Peachtree Christian Church (Atlanta, 1975), 17. The window was painted by Barbara and Dulcima Glasby. I am grateful to Peter Cormack of the William Morris Gallery, London, for information about Glasby and his daughters. I am also indebted to the late Thomas Lyman and Arnold Klukas for organizing the conference Medieval Mania at Emory University which facilitated my inspection of these windows. I am also grateful for help from Kenneth H. Thomas Jr., Historic Preservation Section of the Department of Natural Resources, Parks and Historic Sites Division, Atlanta, Georgia.

(The Window at Mablethorpe [NW 65] has photos of the 2 children to whom the Window is dedicated but we have not been able to find out if the images are in the stained glass. It is unusual for photographs to be included in the stained glass in UK churches.

Barbara and Dulcima Glasby, Parable of the Great Feast, 1945, Memorial to Jimellen, Gottenstrater, aisle window, The Peachtree Christian Church, Atlanta, Georgia.

Photo: author