The discourse of identity: John La Farge's stained glass windows for congregation B'nai Jehudah, Kansas City, Missouri

摘要

This study investigates the social and cultural meaning manifest in the style and iconography of John La Farge's stained glass windows for Congregation B'nai Jehudah, as well as the architecture of the Linwood Boulevard temple, in Kansas City, Missouri. Together, the windows and the temple, which I call the Linwood architectural program, incorporated symbols that gave visual form to the congregation's social and religious goals. Utilizing research methods from the fields of art history, architectural history, and material culture studies, I will reveal the relationship between the architectural program's form and content by locating the design and imagery within the broader context of American Reform Judaism, Beaux-Art:, classicism, and late nineteenth-century, archaeological discoveries. The congregation's history, from its ethnic heritage and socio-economic status to its religious beliefs, will also be investigated for it informs the social and religious meanings embodied in the form and content of the Linwood architecture program.