Since 2018, the Heinz Memorial Chapel has hosted a tour series honoring the women featured in their stained glass windows. The “Women in the Windows” tours occur annually during Women’s History Month.
The chapel was built to honor H.J. Heinz’s mother, Anna Margaretta Heinz, a woman who cared deeply about education and spirituality. The building features over 200 stained glass portraits of women from different backgrounds, including religious, political and artistic figures.
Chapel and tour director Karen Sebolt selects a group of stained glass depictions based on each year’s Women’s History Month theme set by the National Women’s History Alliance. This year’s theme is “Leading the Change: Women Shaping a Sustainable Future.”
“I thought sustainability was sort of a modern issue, so I was worried it would be a struggle [to pick women to highlight],” Sebolt said.
Nevertheless, she was able to select seven women to feature who she felt connected with sustainability.
Penn Hills resident Micheal Aubele also commented on the modernity of sustainability.
“When you think of sustainability, you think about it with a modern twist to it, and it was interesting to hear this historical presentation about how sustainability manifested itself differently throughout the years,” Aubele said.
Prior to the tour, a small group of attendees gathered in the pews at sundown, quietly chatting and admiring the stained glass windows as the sun shone through them. Sebolt stood between the pews and handed out binoculars and information sheets to utilize during the tour.
Before starting her presentation on the women featured in the windows, Sebolt gave a brief background on the Chapel’s history. One of the Chapel’s most notable features is its collection of 27 stained glass windows. These windows contain over 400 total portraits of important world figures, featuring men and women equally, and are among the tallest stained glass creations in the world.
“I was a student here for two years and knew nothing about the local buildings, so I think it is very important to have these educational events and teach as many locals as possible,” Aubele said.
Wedding and event coordinator for the Chapel, Gavi Perez-Swanson, appreciated the gender diversity depicted in the art she saw during the tour.
“[It is] metal the artist included as many women as men in his portraits, especially considering the time period they were created in,” Perez-Swanson said. “I came in hoping to learn, and that is exactly what happened.”
Though the Chapel is non-denomenational, the portraits feature a wide selection of Christian religious figures. Sebolt highlighted four abbesses, or nuns who created and run abbeys, and explained their relevance to this year’s theme of sustainability.
When doing research on these abbesses for the tour, Sebolt found that community gardens connect all of these women and their abbeys.
“I found that the abbeys were surprisingly self-sustaining and also provided for the towns around them. Their orchards, their vineyards, ponds teeming with fish and water resources were all maintained by women,” Sebolt said.
The tour then went on to feature women outside of the religious space, like political figures in Chieffes Kapi’olani of Hawaii, and artists like Emily Dickinson.
Senior computer science major Joanna Wang visited the Chapel for the first time after she saw the tour being advertised around campus for Women’s History Month.
“These women provide models and examples for the rest of us and help us understand that there are so many possibilities for what our futures can look like,” Wang said.
As the tour concluded, attendees continued to observe the stained glass windows as the evening light shifted through the Chapel. The women featured in the stained glass — including abbesses, artists and political figures — are connected through themes of community involvement, environmental awareness and resource management.