"The Conversion of St. Paul" - East Transept window

Saint Paul Cathedral
William Willet (1906)

William Willet (1867-1921) along with his wife Anne, designed more than forty-five of the Cathedral's stained glass windows in their Pittsburgh studio. Willet was born in New York and received his artistic training there. He also traveled in Europe where he studied the stained glass of the great Cathedrals of medieval Europe. Willet crafted his windows from imported antique glass, the same type of glass used in these cathedrals, which he valued for its transparency and ability to withstand the high temperatures needed to fuse paints into the glass. He was a pioneer in designing and producing this type of glass in the United States. He also designed the chancel window in Pittsburgh's Calvary Episcopal Church, the chancel window in West Point's chapel and the Seven Liberal Arts in Proctor Hall at Princeton.

Willet's stained-glass art work will be featured in St. Paul Cathedral's centennial book, which will be published in the spring of 2007. Cathedral windows designed by the Franz Mayer & Company of Munich and the John Hardman Studio of Birmingham, England are also included. Look for a detail from one of their stained-glass windows as this web page develops.