A fine piece of glass, though the symbolism may be a bit muddled. The parting of the clouds and the heavenly radiance suggest that the dove represents the Holy Spirit; the leaf in its beak suggests Noah’s dove (Genesis 8:10-11).
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Joseph Horne Monument, Allegheny Cemetery
Joseph Horne, the department-store baron, certainly had enough money for a mausoleum, but chose to be remembered by this beautiful monument instead. A mourning woman lays a wreath on the grave; she is consoled by an angel who points the way Mr. Horne is presumed to have headed. Just to make the message clear, the angel also bears a palm, emblematic of victory.
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Stained Glass in the Shields Mausoleum, Homewood Cemetery
Mr. Shields decided to take his favorite pinup girl with him to the grave. A stout wooden beam apparently holding up the ceiling of the mausoleum stands in the way of the view of this window; Father Pitt has therefore stitched this picture together from two separate pictures, and the seam is obvious. But the window is unusual enough that we can tolerate a substandard photograph. —UPDATE: Old Pa Pitt has accidentally found out quite a bit more about this window. It is called “The Spirit of the Water Lily,” and it was designed by the famous stained-glass artist William Willet for the home of one of Pittsburgh’s rich industrialists, George I. Whitney. How it came to be in this mausoleum Father Pitt does not know. The design for the window was printed in the February, 1904, issue of the Booklovers Magazine, and we note that, if this drawing is accurate, the window is currently installed backwards:
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Vandergrift Column, Allegheny Cemetery
A monument to Jacob Jay Vandergrift, riverboat captain, pioneering oil magnate, and eponymous founder of Vandergrift, Pennsylvania. There are an awful lot of eponymous people in the Allegheny Cemetery. The column was supposedly designed by Alden & Harlow.
The pictures in this article have been donated to Wikimedia Commons under a Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication, so no permission is needed to use them for any purpose whatsoever.
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Laughlin Monument, Allegheny Cemetery
This monument marks the grave of James H. Laughlin, partner with B. F. Jones in Jones & Laughlin Steel.
The pictures in this article have been donated to Wikimedia Commons under a Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication, so no permission is needed to use them for any purpose whatsoever.