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First Presbyterian, "Great Women"

Philadelphia, PA

1900-1949

To view our video about the Great Women of the Bible, please click here.

First Presbyterian Church at 35–43 West Chelten Avenue in Philadelphia was designed in 1888 by G. W. and W. D. Hewitt, who were responsible for much of the ecclesiastical and residential architecture in Germantown and Chestnut Hill at the turn of the twentieth century. Over the years, the church commissioned stained glass windows from Tiffany in New York, and from Nicola d’Ascenzo and the Willett Studio in Philadelphia.

In 1945, Mrs. W. Beatty Jennings, wife of the former pastor, invited Violet Oakley to paint a mural frieze in church's reception hall. The Pastoral Aid Society, the women's auxiliary of First Presbyterian, donated funds for the commission. Oakley’s program, Great Women of the Bible, consisted of six biblical scenes and two panels with genealogical trees of women mentioned in the Old and New Testaments, which were researched and painted by Edith Emerson. The biblical episodes represented women’s roles that the members of the Pastoral Aid Society could identify with: The Annunciation (conception); The Coming of the Wise Men from the East (family); Jesus in the House of Mary and Martha (domesticity); and The Raising of Dorcas (good works). The latter subject from Acts 9:36–42 was particularly relevant to the patrons. When Dorcas, a charitable wealthy woman, passed away, Saint Peter raised her from the dead. During the nineteenth century, affluent Christian women in Britain and the United States formed charitable organizations known as Dorcas Societies with a social welfare mission similar to the Pastoral Aid Society.

The remaining pictorial panels embedded a nineteenth-century feminist critique of the biblical interpretation of Eve as the progenitor of sin and the Fall of Mankind. The suffragists who composed The Woman’s Bible (1895–98) with Elizabeth Cady Stanton claimed that the story of Adam and Eve was a misogynist myth deployed to restrict women from full participation in the church and society. Oakley devoted an entire wall with three panels to a Dantean interpretation of the Redemption through women. The Beguiling of Eve (Gen. 2–3) shows the first woman in Eden with a leopard, a symbol of wantonness in Dante’s Inferno, accepting forbidden fruit from a satanic-faced serpent. Over the oak door in the wall separating the panels, Jophiel, The Angel with the Flaming Sword, points to the next panel, Eve Seated at the Feet of Mary. The image derived from Dante’s Paradiso, in which he is shown a vision of the penitent Eve, the source of original sin, comforted by the Virgin Mary, born without original sin, who brings about the Redemption by giving birth to the Savior.

The frieze also includes a mural of Jesus and the Woman of Samaria at Jacob’s Well (John 4:5–42), a story that describes the compassion of Christ toward a Samaritan woman of questionable virtue. In the narrative, the well serves as a metaphor for the spiritual “waters of life.” Oakley’s version was awarded the Mary Smith Prize by the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1948. The Great Women of the Bible series was dedicated on April 24, 1949, and the Pastoral Aid Society Room was later renamed the Jennings Room in honor of Mrs. Jennings’s role in its transformation into a work of art. A guide, Great Women of the Bible: Series of Paintings in the Room of the Pastoral Aid Society, First Presbyterian Church in Germantown, was published by the Eldon Press.

Works in Woodmere’s Collection

Composition Study for "The Redemption," from the mural series "Great Women of the Bible," First Presbyterian Church in Germantown, PA

Murals

Elevation study for three murals above fireplace, from the series "Great Women of the Bible," First Presbyterian Church in Germantown, PA

Murals

Head study for "The Annunciation, Angel Gabriel" mural (Marjorie Wysong, [Sister Marjorie Raphael] model), from the series "Great Women of the Bible, "First Presbyterian Church in Germantown, PA

Murals

Study of the Virgin Mary for "The Redemption," from the mural series "Great Women of the Bible," First Presbyterian Church in Germantown, PA

Murals

Great Women of the Bible: Series of paintings in the Room of The Pastoral Aid Society; First Presbyterian Church in Germantown [Published as a guide to the commission] [Philadelphia: The Eldon Press]

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Mock-up of Front cover for guide Great Women of the Bible: Series of paintings in the Room of The Pastoral Aid Society; First Presbyterian Church, Germantown, Philadelphia [Philadelphia: The Eldon Press]

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Mock-up of Page [1] Title page with copyright for guide Great Women of the Bible: Series of paintings in the Room of The Pastoral Aid Society; First Presbyterian Church, Germantown, Philadelphia [Philadelphia: The Eldon Press]

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Mock-up of Page [9] [text] for guide Great Women of the Bible: Series of paintings in the Room of The Pastoral Aid Society; First Presbyterian Church, Germantown, Philadelphia [Philadelphia: The Eldon Press]

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Mock-up of Page [10] [text] for guide Great Women of the Bible: Series of paintings in the Room of The Pastoral Aid Society; First Presbyterian Church, Germantown, Philadelphia [Philadelphia: The Eldon Press]

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Mock-up of Page [11] The Donors [text] for guide Great Women of the Bible: Series of paintings in the Room of The Pastoral Aid Society; First Presbyterian Church, Germantown, Philadelphia [Philadelphia: The Eldon Press]

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Mock-up of Page [12] [text] for guide Great Women of the Bible: Series of paintings in the Room of The Pastoral Aid Society; First Presbyterian Church, Germantown, Philadelphia [Philadelphia: The Eldon Press]

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Mock-up of rejected Page [2] [text] for guide Great Women of the Bible: Series of paintings in the Room of The Pastoral Aid Society; First Presbyterian Church, Germantown, Philadelphia [Philadelphia: The Eldon Press]

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Mock-up of Page [2] [text] for guide Great Women of the Bible: Series of paintings in the Room of The Pastoral Aid Society; First Presbyterian Church, Germantown, Philadelphia [Philadelphia: The Eldon Press]

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Mock-up of Page [3] The Annunciation [text] for guide Great Women of the Bible: Series of paintings in the Room of The Pastoral Aid Society; First Presbyterian Church, Germantown, Philadelphia [Philadelphia: The Eldon Press]

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Mock-up of Page [4] Jesus and the Woman of Samaria at Jacob's Well for guide Great Women of the Bible: Series of paintings in the Room of The Pastoral Aid Society; First Presbyterian Church, Germantown, Philadelphia [Philadelphia: The Eldon Press]

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Mock-up of Page [5] The Raising of Dorcas by St. Peter [text] for guide Great Women of the Bible: Series of paintings in the Room of The Pastoral Aid Society; First Presbyterian Church, Germantown, Philadelphia [Philadelphia: The Eldon Press]

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Mock-up of Page [6] The Redemption [text] for guide Great Women of the Bible: Series of paintings in the Room of The Pastoral Aid Society; First Presbyterian Church, Germantown, Philadelphia [Philadelphia: The Eldon Press]

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Mock-up of Page [7] I am very grateful to this church [text] for guide Great Women of the Bible: Series of paintings I [n the Room of The Pastoral Aid Society; First Presbyterian Church, Germantown, Philadelphia [Philadelphia: The Eldon Press]

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Mock-up of Page [8] [text] for guide Great Women of the Bible: Series of paintings in the Room of The Pastoral Aid Society; First Presbyterian Church, Germantown, Philadelphia [Philadelphia: The Eldon Press]

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Works in Other Collections

Historical Images

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Related Works in Woodmere’s Collection

Study for "Eve at the Feet of the Virgin Mary" proposed fountain, 1936-37, by Violet Oakley (Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 2015)

Composition study for Paradiso: The White Rose and the Tenth Heaven, "The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri" stained glass window, Robert J. Collier House, c. 1910-12, by Violet Oakley (Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 2015)

Study of Trevi Fountain, Rome, date unknown, by Violet Oakley (Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 2015)

Illuminated text study for "Woman – lei Miracoli della sua vita," date unknown, by Violet Oakley (Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 2015)

Illuminated text study [Page 2?] for "Woman – lei Miracoli della sua vita," date unknown, by Violet Oakley (Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 2015)