Tiffany Living

Louis Comfort Tiffany of the Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company was a genius at his work. The discovery of the lost Alcuin and Charlemagne window bears this out, and is a parable for the importance of reflecting and transmitting light wherever we are.

In 1886, Louise Wakeman Knox was married to Louis Comfort Tiffany of the Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company.

She was the daughter of James Hall Mason Knox, the president of Lafayette College from 1883-’90.

It is that link that no doubt accounts for the gift of the Alcuin and Charlemagne stained-glass window to the college in 1898.

The window, created by Tiffany at the height of his powers and measuring six feet wide by 14 feet tall, consists of four panels. Two of the panels depict the Emperor Charlemagne and the monk Alcuin (735-804), who led a revival of learning later known as the Carolingian Renaissance, reading an astronomy book in the Palatine Chapel.

The window was placed in an auditorium in Pardee Hall, which had already suffered two fires since its construction in 1872. Therefore, when the building underwent a renovation later in the 20th century, administrators thought it would be wise to place the Alcuin and Charlemagne window in storage for safekeeping.

And then, like so...