page_title: Alois Lang
hierarchical_section_title: Alois Lang
caption_attribution_description: English: Photograph of Master Woodcarver Alois Lang working on "The Last Supper."
context_page_description: Alois Lang was a Master Woodcarver at the American Seating Company, and one of the artists responsible for bringing the medieval art of ecclesiastical carving to life in the United States.
  Lang was born in Oberammergau in Bavaria, a town long known for its excellence in wood carving. He was apprenticed to his cousin Andreas Lang around the age of 14, spent one year's study with the great wood sculptor Fortunato Galli in Florence, Italy, and moved to the United States in 1890 at the age of 19. Lang first found work in Boston carving elaborate mantelpieces for Back Bay families.
  In 1903, he moved westward and joined the American Seating Company of Manitowoc, Wisconsin, moving with the firm to Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1927. Lang became well known as a prominent ecclesiastical wood-carver. An article in a 1946 newsletter states that “recently the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts and Letters presented him with a special award for his contribution to art in Michigan.”
  His carvings can be found in numerous buildings, mostly churches, throughout the United States, including:
  Rockefeller Chapel, Chicago, Illinois
  Christ Church Cathedral, Springfield, Massachusetts
context_section_description: Alois Lang (1872–1954) was a Master Woodcarver at the American Seating Company, and one of the artists responsible for bringing the medieval art of ecclesiastical carving to life in the United States.
  Lang was born in Oberammergau in Bavaria, a town long known for its excellence in wood carving. He was apprenticed to his cousin Andreas Lang around the age of 14, spent one year's study with the great wood sculptor Fortunato Galli in Florence, Italy, and moved to the United States in 1890 at the age of 19. Lang first found work in Boston carving elaborate mantelpieces for Back Bay families.
  In 1903, he moved westward and joined the American Seating Company of Manitowoc, Wisconsin, moving with the firm to Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1927.  Lang became well known as a prominent ecclesiastical wood-carver. An article in a 1946 newsletter states that “recently the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts and Letters presented him with a special award for his contribution to art in Michigan.”
  His carvings can be found in numerous buildings, mostly churches, throughout the United States, including:
  Rockefeller Chapel, Chicago, Illinois
  Christ Church Cathedral, Springfield, Massachusetts (reredos, narthex portal and screen)
  Christ Church, Cranbrook, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan
  Emmanuel Episcopal Church, La Grange, Illinois (Last Supper, reredos originally installed in Christchurch, Chicago, Illinois)
  National Shrine of the Little Flower, Royal Oak, Michigan
  St. Mark's Episcopal Church, Grand Rapids Michigan
  Christ Church, Boston, Massachusetts
  All Saints Church, Pasadena, California
  Church of the Incarnation, Great Falls, Montana
  Saint Paul's Episcopal Church, Lansing, Michigan
  Christ Episcopal Church, Ottawa, Illinois
  First (Park) Congregational Church, Grand Rapids, Michigan
  The Emmanuel Lutheran Church, Rockford, Illinois
  Wicker Park Lutheran Church, Chicago, Illinois
  Grosse Pointe Memorial Church, Grosse Pointe, Michigan
  Christ Episcopal Cathedral, Salina, Kansas
  Hope Church (Reformed Church in America), Holland, Michigan
  Zion Evangelical United Church of Christ (Indianapolis, Indiana)
  St. Marcus Evangelical & Reformed (United Church of Christ) (St. Louis, Missouri)
  St. John's Episcopal Church, Detroit, Michigan
  Central United Methodist Church, Detroit, Michigan.  (Hughes 1967, www.centralumchurch.org)
  High Street United Methodist Church  (Springfield, Ohio)
  St. Mark's Episcopal Pro-Cathedral (Hastings, Nebraska)
  Union Avenue Christian Church (St. Louis, MO)
caption: Alois Lang working on "The Last Supper"
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