WINTER PARK, FL—The Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art concludes its 2026 free Wednesday Lecture Series on April 15, with Brianne Van Vorst, the Principal of Liberty Stained Glass Conservation, LLC, in Freehold, New Jersey. Van Vorst will present “Bringing Joseph & His Brothers Back: Conserving an 1898 Tiffany Glass & Decorating Company Window.”
For this lecture, Van Vorst will focus on the memorial window “Joseph Making Himself Known to His Brethren,” which depicts Joseph as a high-ranking Egyptian ruler reuniting with his brothers, as described in the book of Genesis. The complex composition of this window masterfully depicts thirteen figures in a richly decorated Egyptian interior. The window is one of seven Tiffany windows in the Briarcliff Congregational Church in New York’s Hudson River Valley.
During Van Vorst’s 2024 stained-glass condition survey of Briarcliff Church’s full window collection, she identified the Joseph window as in need of conservation due to severe structural issues, causing the window to buckle. Earlier alterations in 1982 had also modified the window’s original design. Conservation treatment to repair and restore the window began in early 2025. The treatment focused on removing past (non-original) additions to the window, repairing broken glass, and installing an environmental protective glazing system to prevent further degradation and damage.
About Brianne Van Vorst:
Brianne Van Vorst is the principal of Liberty Stained Glass Conservation. She holds an MA in Stained Glass Conservation and Cultural Heritage Management from the University of York, in the UK, where she worked with the York Glaziers Trust on the conservation of York Minster’s Great East Window. After returning to the US, she worked in a private studio Northeast Stained Glass. Working in both the US and UK created a unique vantage point that highlighted the differences in materials, technique, approach, and industry standards between the two places. This motivated her to open a consulting firm, Liberty Stained Glass Conservation, in 2016.
Van Vorst is an active member of several professional organizations, including the New York Landmarks Conservancy, Partners for Sacred Spaces, the American Glass Guild, and the Stained Glass Association of America. She also serves as Chair of her local Historic Preservation Commission and lectures on stained glass at the American College of Building Arts.
About Morse Museum Lectures
The Morse Museum’s lectures focus on topics related to its collection and exhibitions. Programs are free to the public and held in the Jeannette G. and Hugh F. McKean Pavilion, 161 West Canton Avenue (just behind the Museum). Doors open at 2 p.m. and the program begins at 2:30 p.m. A reception with light refreshments immediately follows the presentation. Space is limited and filled on a first-come, first-served basis.
Abut the Morse Museum
The Morse Museum is home to the world’s most comprehensive collection of works by Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848–1933), including the chapel interior he designed for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, and art and architectural elements from his Long Island estate, Laurelton Hall. The Museum’s holdings encompass late 19th- and early 20th-century painting and design, including American art pottery. For more information, please visit morsemuseum.org.