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Dear {Name}:

Three-quarters of a century after it was buried and forgotten in a dusty college basement, one of Louis Comfort Tiffany's oldest masterpieces has been rediscovered. It will be reinstalled at one of the country's oldest women's colleges April 14 and 15. 

The story of the Tiffany window, designed for Pittsburgh's Chatham College in 1889, is unique for three reasons: 

* The window's significance as an American art treasure (it is extremely rare)
* Its design symbolizing women's education 
* The century-old story behind its creation, eclipse and rediscovery

Here is the story in brief:

* In 1889, members of Chatham College's alumnae association spearheaded an effort to present the 20-year-old women's liberal arts college with a gift. The women solicited artists' designs and determinedly raised the then-large sum of $650.

* They chose a design by a little-known artist, Louis Comfort Tiffany. Tiffany's complex design, inspired by a section of the Sistine Chapel ceiling, includes a woman reading a book inscribed with the college's motto. Thirteen surrounding sections of the window contain the names of classical thinkers who influenced Chatham education. 

* In a grand ceremony, the window was presented to the college and installed in its chapel. But soon the oily soot belching from Pittsburgh's steel mills begrimed the glass, and in 1926 the window was removed, disassembled and packed away in a dusty basement, where it languished-- forgotten.

* The window was rediscovered in 1997, and college officials were astonished to learn what the school possessed. They hired the country's leading restorer of Tiffany windows-- Damien Peduto of Tiffany Studios Restorations in New Jersey-- and he painstakingly restored the window to its former brilliance. Mr. Peduto and other Tiffany experts agree that the window is a remarkable piece in which the artist experimented with materials and techniques.  

* The window-- whose worth can't be estimated-- will be installed in a new science building on Chatham College's campus on April 14 and 15. It will be officially unveiled during the building's dedication on April 27.  

You probably know that interest in Tiffany and his art has recently been revived around the world-- the Metropolitan Museum of Art's late 1998-early 1999 exhibit is just one indication. Feature stories about Tiffany are cropping up in the media, and Tiffany aficionados travel thousands of miles to see newly rediscovered works.

But few Tiffany pieces are as old or as distinctive as Chatham's, and ours is the only one dealing with the subject of women and education.

I hope that the inherent appeal of the story will make you want to do a piece on the window. 

I plan to contact you in a week or so to see if you are in fact interested. In the  meantime, please feel free to call me at 412-365-1140 or e-mail me at <mclaughlin@chatham.edu>. 

Sincerely,

Genna McLaughlin
Public Relations Specialist