By Amy E. Slade,
Editor-In-Chief
and Ashley Hoffman,
Copy Editor

Above St. Joseph�s Chapel here at Seton Hill are housed sculptures and paintings of the late Besty Bramer�s collection of antique Madonnas. More sculptures are on display in the office of Dr. JoAnne Boyle, president of Seton Hill University and two pieces are displayed in the office of Sr. Lois Sculco, vice president for administration and student life.

These select Madonnas have been removed from storage and are displayed in the office of President Dr. JoAnne Boyle.

Before coming to Seton Hill the Bramer collection was displayed several times locally including the Christmas Exhibition of the Westmoreland Museum of American Art in 1960 where 34 pieces of the collection were shown.

In the foreword of the Christmas Exhibition�s catalogue the Reverend Monsignor William Granger Ryan, president of Seton Hill College from 1948-1971 said, �The Religious Art Center of America...at Seton Hill plans to exhibit outstanding examples of religious art.� However, The Religious Art Center was never instituted. �I don�t think it [the Religious Art Center] ever really took off,� said Sr. Mary Alma Vandervest, archivist.

According to an October 23, 2003 Pittsburgh Post Gazette article, the late �Besty Bramer was the widow of S. Eugene Bramer, a founder of Copperweld Steel Corp.� who was very interested in collecting art with spiritual themes. The article also says that it was through this mutual interest in religious art that Bramer and Sister of Charity, Sr. Mary Francis Irvin became friends.

Bramer was also very good friends with Ryan and served on the Seton Hill board of trustees. In December of 1956, Bramer made a bequest of her collection to Seton Hill.

Records of Deeds of Gift show that from the late 1950s to the 1980s Bramer donated many pieces of her Madonna collection as well as other art items, religious items, and furniture to Seton Hill. �The Collection is certainly going to be of marvelous educational value for the students in years to come,� said Ryan in a letter to Bramer dated March 26, 1962.

This piece was among the storage left behind with the other pieces in the Bramer collection.

Originally some of the pieces were thought to date back to the Late Middle Ages and the Renaissance, but when the pieces where inventoried in 1988 it was found that most of them were fakes. �We had some art experts from New York [come] and it was their disappointing find [to learn the Madonnas] were not what they had been represented to be and what the donor thought they were,� said Boyle. While most of them are reproductions of older pieces, there are some originals but nothing older than the 18th century.

�It�s [the collection] lovely and it still has a wonderful story, but it�s not priceless,� said Boyle.

Later in her life, Bramer lived in Florida near her friend Robert E. Kaub whom she named as trustee of her estate in her will in 1982. Bramer passed away in September of 1985 and in February of 1986 at the request of Ms. Eileen Farrell president of Seton Hill College from 1977-1987; Kaub shipped the rest of the Bramer collection to Seton Hill.

�[The Madonnas] are very beautiful and will certainly be an appreciated and cherished collection for the College. It is our plan at this time to display them in the parlors on the second floor of the Administration Building,� Farrell said in a letter to Bramer dated April 19, 1982.

�I�m only speculating...the cost of displaying [them] was probably considerable� and that is why Farrell could not have the collection displayed during her administration, said Boyle. Boyle had some of the pieces moved to and displayed in her office. �I thought it was sad, too sad to have them all up there,� said Boyle. Boyle also had a few of the Madonnas photographed for Seton Hill Christmas cards because she wanted to share this art with the community.

�I think it�s an intriguing collection. And maybe someday we will be able to put them in some locked cabinets,� said Boyle. �It�s [the Bramer collection] lacking a secure place to have it out.� The university does not want them to be stolen or damaged and that is why there are kept in an obscure room above the chapel. Boyle said the recent interest in the art has stirred her enthusiasm.

�I�m fired up now to see what we can do,� Boyle said. It will take time before art is displayed because money has to be raised to buy display cases to house the art. �[The Madonnas] are still waiting for a benefactor,� said Boyle.

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