stained glass artist / WWI camoufleur / bird enthusiast

Len R. Howard, Grace Church window

Surely, there can’t be many people—outside of those who specialize in stained glass window design— who have ever heard of a British-born American artist named Len R. Howard. Born Leonard Richard Howard in London on August 2, 1891, he became a youthful apprentice at a large British stained glass company, James Powell and Sons. He had also attended school at St. Martins and the Camberwell Art School in London.

Howard moved to the US in 1913, where he studied in New York at the Art Students League, and Pratt Institute. He was living in Boston in June 1917, when he registered for the draft. He had moved to the US from England in 1913. Two years later, he married an American woman named Madeleine Copping, and began to apply for citizenship. Soon after, they settled in New England, and Howard continued his studies at the Copley Society in Boston.

World War I began in Europe in 1914, but the US did not enter the war until 1917. In that year, Howard joined the army, and was assigned to the Camouflage Corps of the AEF, during which he served in France.

Len R. Howard

When the war ended, he returned to the US, where he worked for the Gorham Company in New York. In 1922, he and his wife settled in Kent CT, where he established his own commercial studio, where he designed stained glass windows. According to an article in the Scarsdale Inquirer (March 2, 1951), “His windows are in business buildings, churches and schools all over the country.”

During the Depression, Howard was commissioned by the WPA Federal Arts Project to complete a stained glass window, titled American Literature, for the high school in New Milford CT. Years later (c1963), he also designed a major window for Grace Church in Milbrook NY. That window, known as "the Lincoln window" (shown at the top of this blog post) was initially controversial because it portrays Abraham Lincoln as a “savior,” and because its imagery includes a reference to a slave auction. 

Whatever the circumstances, Howard was also interested in birds. He was the author of two unusual books on the subject (both illustrated with photographs and drawings), titled Birds as Individuals, and Living with Birds. There is online access to both at Internet Archive. He continued to work into his eighties. He died in 1987 in Arkansas.

RELATED LINKS    

Dazzle Camouflage: What is it and how did it work? /  Nature, Art, and Camouflage / Art, Women's Rights, and Camouflage /  Embedded Figures, Art, and Camouflage / Art, Gestalt, and Camouflage /  Optical science meets visual art /  Disruption versus dazzle / Chicanery and conspicuousness /  Under the big top at Sims' circus