In 1889 John La Farge designed a triptych depicting St. John the Evangelist; Christ Preaching and St. Paul the Apostle, for the All Souls Unitarian Church on Warren Avenue in Roxbury, MA, the same year La Farge was awarded the French Medal of the Legion of Honor for his contribution to art.

In 1925 the Church was sold to another denomination and the original donors of the triptych requested that the windows be removed and given to the Unitarian Universalist Society in Amherst, which was undergoing a remodeling and expansion project in 1925.  In 2013 the Unitarian Universalist Church in Amherst decided to sell the La Farge windows, for a variety of reasons: The Christian symbolism was determined not to be fitting for Unitarianism; The windows required restoration; Church building expansion was needed and funds were required for construction. The only place to expand the buildings was through the wall where the La Farge triptych was installed. The McMullen Museum at Boston College saw an opportunity to showcase these wonderful windows, and purchased them with the help of Boston College Alum (Class of 1974) and respected art dealer, William Vareika, of Newport, RI http://www.vareikafinearts.com

Serpentino Stained Glass was trusted with the tedious task of conserving this amazing La Farge tryptic  now displayed at the McMullen Museum at Boston College.

The background of these windows was fabricated using a field of large (1-1/2” in diameter) round turquoise cabochons. Sheets of lead were laid out and holes cut through the lead to allow light to illuminate the cabochons. Each cabochon was then wrapped with small lead came and soldered to the sheet lead. On the obverse side, each cabochon was then plated with different shades of blue and teal glass.