Installed: 1907

Memorial name: Wheeler Memorial Window

Dedicated to: Alexander Strong Wheeler (1820-1907)

Location: Right balcony

In this depiction of “Blessed Are the Peacemakers,” an angel reaches upwards with her right hand toward a dove, emblematic of peace. In her left hand, she holds a banderole inscribed with the words of the seventh beatitude, which were painted onto the glass and then plated with a plain glass sheet. Two cherubs grasp hands with their arms encircling the lower half of the angel. This window makes extensive use of the iridescent, “Favrile” glass patented by Louis Comfort Tiffany in 1894.

Donated by his family, this window honors Alexander Strong Wheeler (1820-1907), a longstanding and devoted member of Arlington Street Church. Despite being born into a poor family in Wayland, MA, Wheeler attended Dartmouth College and Harvard Law School. In addition to becoming a prominent Boston attorney with his own successful firm, Wheeler was one of the founders of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and served on the board of directors of the Second National Bank of Boston, alongside his close colleague James Henry Beal, who is memorialized in the Arlington Street Church window featuring John the Baptist (window 4).

Glenn Kulbako Photography

The Arlington Street Church windows are unique in their unified narrative because Frederick Wilson designed them together as series. Wilson began in 1905 by conceptualizing each of the windows as a highly finished watercolor (gouache) sketch. The fact that these paintings are mounted in green portfolios inscribed with the Tiffany Studios’ monogram suggests they were formally presented for selection. Wilson created ten potential window designs from the beatitudes, which are the blessings offered by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. Six were executed in glass for the balcony windows. The church has retained nine of these priceless watercolor sketches, and the tenth is part of the collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.