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The names of some of the women who worked at Tiffany Studios
came to light in 2005 when a trove of letters from Tiffany Glass
Designer Clara Driscoll to her mother and sisters was discovered, many
written during her tenure at Tiffany Studios. These letters offer
historians an invaluable insider look at Tiffany during this prolific
period in the company’s history and have helped to identify Driscoll’s
contributions as well as some of the other women Driscoll worked with.

Clara Driscoll
The saying, “behind every
great man is a great woman” has
historically been used to give
women credit when society has
not recognized their achieve-
ments. That saying can certainly
be applied to Clara Driscoll who,
only now—almost 80 years after
her death in 1944—is getting the
recognition she deserves for her
design contributions to some of Northrop’s painted landscapes were
Tiffany Studios’ most iconic translated into glass and featured
stained glass lampwork. beautiful floral renderings and often a
A native of Tallmadge, Ohio, central stream to represent “the voyage
It is now thought that Clara Driscoll of life.” Among her important
first suggested that Tiffany begin his Clara Wolcott came to New York windows, Northrop created a set for
foray into leaded shades. So keen was in 1888 to pursue an artistic her family’s place of worship, the
her eye, and so deft were her abilities, career. Shortly after completing Reformed Church of Flushing (now
in all aspects of creating leaded glass her studies at the Metropolitan the Bowne Street Community
lamps and mosaic objects (including Museum Art School, she landed a Church), where her grandfather
bookkeeping and administration, job at the Tiffany Glass Company became pastor in 1865. In 1903 Agnes designed the Northrop
in addition to design creation and (later Tiffany Studios) cutting Memorial Window at the Bowne
production oversight) that within glass for windows and mosaics. women or with men in the studio. Street Community Church to
five years at the firm she had She married a year later, and She was one of the few women to memorialize her father with a
thirty-five female employees reporting according to the custom of the secure a patent for her designs. Voyage of Life fruit tree and
directly to her. heavenly city shown above.
time, left her job to assume the During her tenure there, most of
duties of a proper Victorian housewife. When her husband died in the designs were done by men. Agnes collaborated and added flower
1892, Clara returned to Tiffany Studios as Clara Driscoll and assumed details to important windows and was not always credited, but at least
a managerial position directing the six-person Women’s Glasscutting we know of several which can be directly attributed to her. These
Department. Whether due to her leadership or the boom in the include a number of windows installed at the Bowne Street
stained glass window industry, Driscoll was soon managing a thriving Community Church in Flushing, Queens.
department of 35 young women, who referred to themselves as the Northrop was at the height of her power in 1917 when she designed
“Tiffany Girls.” the dazzling Hartwell window for the Art Institute of Chicago,
According to Curator of Decorative Arts at the N.Y. Historical dramatically backlit to mimic sunlight flooding through, creating a
Society Margaret K. Hofer for a 2015 special installation, “Clara began kaleidoscope of color.
experimenting with lamps around 1898 and was probably responsible Northrop worked for Tiffany Studios for over half a century, where
for introducing leaded shades. Tiffany seized on her idea, charging she created some of Tiffany’s most memorable stained-glass windows
Driscoll and the women’s department with the design and and was considered its “foremost landscape window artist,” according
execution of all the leaded-glass shades with nature-inspired to Sarah Kelly Oeler, the Field-McCormick Chair and Curator of
themes.” When the Wisteria table lamp was produced in Arts of the Americas at the Art Institute of Chicago. “She was
1905-1906, it was one of the most expensive and most a true virtuoso in what was referred to at the time as paint-
popular lamps sold by Tiffany Studios at the time. ing in glass.” Northrop was also a female pioneer in the
When the Dragonfly lampshade won a bronze prize at Arts and Crafts and Aesthetic movements and the later
the 1900 world’s fair, Driscoll was cited as the designer, Art Nouveau movement in the late 19th and early 20th
a rare concession for Louis Tiffany. centuries, favoring landscapes and gardens for her subject matter.
Driscoll left Tiffany Studios for the last time in 1909 when she Although Northrop worked at Tiffany Studios for five decades, and
remarried, living another 35 years in relative obscurity. Had she not produced an impressive and lasting body of work, like Driscoll,
been a prolific letter writer, her true contributions to Tiffany Studios, Northrop’s due recognition, until now, was overshadowed and
and those of other Tiffany Girls she worked with, might have suppressed by Tiffany himself.
remained unknown.
Alice Gouvy and Julia Munson
Agnes Northrop Other women to emerge from the Driscoll letters include
Driscoll was not alone among women lead designers at Alice Gouvy and Julia Munson.
Tiffany Studios during her era. Another woman to emerge Born in Cleveland in 1870, Gouvy graduated from the
from the shadows with recent scholarship and Driscoll’s let- One of Tiffany’s most Cleveland School of Art in 1894 and moved to New York,
iconic lampshades
ters is Agnes Fairchild Northrop (1857-1953). designed by Alice Gouvy, where she shared an apartment with Clara Driscoll. After a
Northrop was born in Flushing, Queens and went to the Dragonfly lamp. stint studying at the Art Students League, Gouvy was
work for Louis Comfort Tiffany in 1884 at his newly employed by Tiffany Studios in 1898. She became Driscoll’s
opened glass shop on Fourth Avenue (Park Avenue South) most trusted assistant and remained a close friend.
and E. 25th Street in Manhattan. Although she started out as a “Tiffany Gouvy is known to have helped Clara Driscoll and Agnes Northrop
Girl,” she quickly became independently acknowledged as a designer in to design some of Tiffany’s iconic pieces, including the Flying Fish
her own right. By the 1890s and had her own studio down the hall at shade, the Deep Sea base, and the Dragonfly lamp. Her sketches are also
the company so she did not work in the cutting room with the other Continued at bottom of page 12

10 Journal of Antiques and Collectibles