J and R Lamb Studio

• American

The J and R Lamb Studios is the oldest decorative arts firm and multi-media guild in continuous operation in the United States and preceded the studios of both John LaFarge and Louis C Tiffany. The brothers Joseph Lamb (1833-1898) and Richard Lamb (1832-1909) founded the Studios in 1857 in New York City after leaving Lewisham, England. Joseph's son, Charles Rollinson Lamb (1860-1942), a renowned City Beautiful theorist and architect, greatly shaped the company's aesthetic and intellectual character and business direction. Lamb descendents ran the Studios until Karl B Lamb's death. In 1970, Lamb Studios artist Donald Samick bought the firm and remains its owner in 2006. Many artists designed works for the Studios including celebrated painter Ella Grace Condie (1862-1936), who married Charles Lamb, and their daughter Katharine Lamb Tait (1895-1981).

Lamb works were commissioned for and can often still be seen in museums, schools, hospitals, and especially sacred spaces in almost every part of the United States, from southern towns to northern cities and college campuses to military installations, but particularly in churches and synagogues. Among the notable commissions in the archive are the mosaic decorations for Cornell University's Sage Chapel in Ithaca, New York, and the stained glass windows for the Protestant and Catholic chapels of the US Marine Corps at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. - US Library of Congress