Competition at the Murphy: The Willet Stained Glass and Decorating Company Versus Louis Comfort Tiffany

This blog entry was written by Chandler Tapella as part of his work at Loyola University Master's in Public History program.

The Willet Stained Glass and Decorating Company, known as Willet Studios today, has a storied past.  The company was the brainchild of artist William Willet and his wife Anne Lee Willet, and their story is as enterprising as it is intriguing.  It begins with the protest of a movement, and manifests in the Driehaus Museum today in the beautiful stained-glass window designed by Anne Willets, when the American College of Surgeons owned the Murphy Auditorium. This window is itself literally a window into the Gilded Age, and a time where contestation existed over what stained glass ought to be—beautiful certainly—but the titans of the industry such as the Willets and Louis Comfort Tiffany disagreed about what that meant.

William Willet was an artist of some renown before making his way in the stained-glass game.  He was a portrait painter, painting such luminaries as President McKinley and John Jacob Astor [1].  This was how he met his wife and fellow artist Anne, and in 1896 the couple married [2].

After the Willets moved to Pittsburgh, they cofounded the Willet Stained Glass and Decorating Company in 1898 [3].  It was here that the Willets revived the technique of leaded antique glass, in contrast to the use of opalescent glass by such names as Tiffany and John La Farge, the latter of whom William Willet assisted in his studio between 1885 and 1887 [4].  The Willets protested the use of opalescent glass as they preferred a more traditional, medieval style.  They believed opalescent glass typified a more modern, American style.  Clearly these artists disagreed about the function and form stained-glass should take.

This was the root of the issue: While opalescent glass was more opaque, traditional leaded antique glass was more transparent, and so they played with light in different ways.  This resulted in two separate traditions that put the Willets and Tiffany at odds.  William Willet led the protest movement against opalescent glass, inspired by his 1902 trip to Europe to study the stained glass of the great cathedrals there, and the way this type of glass complemented the architecture around it [5].  He wanted to preserve that style.

William Willet died in 1921 [6], but the studio carried on with his wife and principal owner.  Luckily so, since she designed the Memorial Window in the Murphy Auditorium at the Driehaus Museum [7].  At the behest of the American College of Surgeons and donated by C. H. Matthiessen, the Willet Stained Glass and Decorating Company designed and completed the window in 1925-1926 [8].  Tiffany lost the commission as the College preferred the more subdued yet detailed style of Anne Willet [9].  According to Mark Bleakly, designer for Willet Studios,

Anne Lee Willet’s design for the John B. Murphy Memorial Auditorium of the American College of Surgeons in Chicago distills the motifs of the surrounding architecture into a jeweled memorial for the living transmission of curative knowledge.  The central medallion of the American College of Surgeons brings together the Greek father of medicine, Ascelpius, with a Native American medicine man under the Tree of Knowledge representing the collective root wisdom in ancient and traditional culture.  In much the same way, the background window ornament celebrates this collaboration by weaving together elements of the Greek key pattern, Baroque scrollwork, Renaissance ribbon, garland and vinework, and Gothic knotwork in the original design all against a background Gothic diamond quarry.  This relay continues with the bottom coat of arms for the 17th Century discoverer of blood circulation, William Harvey depicting a hand holding the caduceus (two serpents intertwining around a rod), as a student of Galileo and instructor of the Royal Academy of Physicians; however, this hand carries a flame of knowledge rather than a rod–the pedagogic theme reflected in the background decorative torches throughout the window in tribute to John B. Murphy and the American College of Surgeons [10].

The original design for the Murphy Auditorium Window, also provided by Julie Biggerstaff, Historical Archivist at Willet Studios

Indeed, the story of the Murphy Auditorium window is a story of clashing views and paradigms.  Though Tiffany was certainly a champion of his field and produced beautiful works in his own right, he lost out to the Willet Stained Glass and Decorating Company on this front.  It should not be forgotten that, though the Driehaus Museum is a beautiful and serene place, its Murphy Auditorium also served as a contest for the artistic tastes of the time.

Notes

[1] “History - Associated Crafts® & Willet Hauser®,” Associated Crafts, accessed November 9, 2024, https://stained-glass-window.us/history-of-associated-crafts-and-willet-hauser-stained-glass/

[2] Julie Biggerstaff, Historical Archivist for Willet Studios, email message to author, October 28, 2024.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Mark Bleakley, Designer at Willet Studios, email message to author, November 27, 2024.

[6] Julie Biggerstaff, Historical Archivist for Willet Studios, email message to author, October 28, 2024

[7] Department of Planning and Development, Landmark Designation Report: The John B. Murphy Memorial, October 16, 2024, 25
Link to PDF

[8] Letter from Betty MacDowell to George Stephenson, March 30, 1984, File 29, Murphy Memorial Association, American College of Surgeons Archives, Chicago, IL

[9] David Hanks, Louis Comfort Tiffany: Treasures from the Driehaus Collection (New York: The Monacelli Press, 2013), 43.

[10] Mark Bleakley, Designer at Willet Studios, email message to author, November 4, 2024.

Bibliography

Department of Planning and Development, Landmark Designation Report: The John B. Murphy Memorial, October 16, 2024,
Link to PDF

Hanks, David. Louis Comfort Tiffany: Treasures from the Driehaus Collection New York: The Monacelli Press, 2013.

“History - Associated Crafts® & Willet Hauser®,” Associated Crafts, accessed November 9, 2024, https://stained-glass-window.us/history-of-associated-crafts-and-willet-hauser-stained-glass/

Letter from Betty MacDowell to George Stephenson, March 30, 1984, File 29, Murphy Memorial Association, American College of Surgeons Archives, Chicago, IL.