Colorful characters

New windows inspired by Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales light up the iconic Browsing Room

A chapter has been completed in the Hall of Letters’ Browsing Room: the installation of two new stained-glass windows depicting popular characters from Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales in abstract works of colorful art.

These new panes, featuring the Wife of Bath and the Miller from the “General Prologue” within the tale, continue the legacy begun by the late Edmund Gordon Harris Jr. ’54, who designed and created the original windows for his honors project. He finished installing the panels just days before his graduation. Visit www.OchTamaleMagazine.net/a-light-of-legacy-for-all-to-see to read the story in the fall 2015 Och Tamale.

When Harris passed away in 2013, his estate bequeathed funds for cleaning, resealing, and polishing his original artwork and to help support the creation of the new windows, which were designed by local stained-glass artist Tom Medlicott.

The selection of the Wife of Bath and the Miller was determined with input from faculty in both the College of Arts and Sciences and the Johnston Center, as well as students in the fall 2016 English Literature Senior Seminar. “She has a red complexion, a ‘bold face,’ and large hips, is gap-toothed, and deaf in one ear,” says English Professor Judith Tschann, relaying the description of the Wife of Bath from the “General Prologue” in The Canterbury Tales. For the description of the Miller, a loudmouth character in the tale: “He’s big and brawny, a good wrestler, and can break down a door with his head.”