The Joe W. and Dorothy D. Brown Foundation Special Exhibit Gallery

3:00 p.m. Exhibit Viewing and Reception | 3:30 p.m. Presentation

Join us for the opening of our newest special exhibit Remembered Light: Glass Fragments from World War II, the McDonald Windows. Special remarks will be given, including a presentation from the Museum’s Assistant Director for Curatorial Services Kimberly Guise. The exhibit will be open for viewing throughout the event.

Remembered Light is a collection of 25 art pieces produced by Atelier Le Roux in Oakland, California, using shards of glass from damaged and destroyed European churches collected during World War II by the late US Army Episcopal chaplain Frederick McDonald. McDonald, who served under General Omar Bradley in the 12th Army Group through war-torn Europe, collected shards of stained glass and other mementos from desecrated sanctuary sites he visited from 1944 to 1945 after he first encountered a church in England destroyed by bombing and was heartbroken by the ruins.

During one of his assignments on March 8, 1945, McDonald entered the Gothic Church of Our Lady in Trier, Germany. He wrote of seeing the fallen crucifix on the floor with a statue of the Virgin Mary looking down at it. McDonald observed, as did many soldiers at the end of World War II, the devastation around him and the way the bits of broken glass on the ground shined in the sunlight. He believed that shards from shattered stained glass windows “might be worked into a memorial window somewhere” after the war. In 2003, 25 works of stained glass art were crafted by 13 artists using the small fragments collected by McDonald.

Remembered Light: Glass Fragments from World War II, the McDonald Windows is organized by the Interfaith Center at the Presidio, San Francisco, California, where the stained glass art pieces from Remembered Light will be incorporated into and permanently displayed in the planned renovation of the historic Post Chapel. Lead Artist, Armelle LeRoux.

Remembered Light will be on display at the Museum from November 21, 2019, through April 26, 2020, in The Joe W. and Dorothy D. Brown Special Exhibit Gallery in Louisiana Memorial Pavilion.

This event is free and open to the public but please register to attend. For more information, please call 504-528-1944 x 229.