Tiffany Rainbow Window
Westminster Presbyterian Church, Auburn, NY

Louis Comfort Tiffany
(American 1848-1933), 1910

A beautiful landscape window by Louis Comfort Tiffany graces the sanctuary of  the Westminster Presbyterian Church in Auburn, NY. Created in 1910 during a high point in Tiffany's ecclesiastical commissions, the Rainbow Window is a prime example of Tiffany's landscape windows, rare among religious commissions and considered his supreme achievements in stained glass.

Louis Comfort Tiffany was one of America's most noted decorative artists, and although his name has become almost synonymous with stained glass, he also made pottery, furniture, textiles, jewelry, and works in bronze and enamel. He began his career as a painter, but quickly moved to interior decorations and leaded glass windows, creating a revolutionary technique using opalescent colored glass, rather than painted glass. Using variations in color, thickness of glass, and creative application techniques, Tiffany achieved pictorial effects of unsurpassed subtlety and beauty.

Westminster Presbyterian Church (formerly Central Presbyterian, and then Second Presbyterian) was founded by abolitionists in 1861, who broke away from their parent congregation to follow the Rev. Henry Fowler, who left his former church after praying publicly for the soul of John Brown. The leader of the Underground Railroad, Harriet Tubman, was married in the basement chapel of the fledgling church. In 1869, the congregation acquired land from Lincoln's Secretary of State William Seward, and laid the cornerstone of the present sanctuary. The Tiffany window was given in memory of one of the church's early members, Mrs. Margaret Standart Watson, by her daughter, Janet Seward, the daughter-in-law of the secretary of state.

The window depicts a vibrant rainbow arching over a mountain brook and pond, surrounded by brilliant blue and purple irises. The peaceful scene is illustrative of the text of the 23rd Psalm, "He leadeth me beside the still waters. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures," which is inscribed with the dedication on the rocks in the foreground of the scene.

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The Willard Chapel, the only known completely intact interior designed entirely by Louis Comfort Tiffany, is in Auburn, NY on the grounds of the old Auburn Theological Seminary. It is the only remaining building from the seminary which was once based in Auburn, NY and is now affiliated with the Union Theological Seminary in New York City.

Westminster's Legacy Campaign is raising funds for needed building projects, including the restoration of all the church's stained glass and leaded glass windows, mission, and property endowment. The campaign is working to raise $625,000 by 2012, the church's 150th anniversary. Donations to the Legacy Campaign can be sent to Westminster Presbyterian Church, 17 William St, Auburn, NY 13021, with "Legacy Campaign" on the memo line.