‘Remember the Ladies’: Heinz Chapel Women in the Windows tour celebrates Women’s History Month

In a letter to her husband, John Adams, Abigail Adams asked him to “remember the ladies” as he worked to draft the United States Constitution in 1776. Remembering and celebrating women and their achievements is something America does every March, which was officially declared Women’s History Month in 1987.

One Women’s History Month celebration that takes place annually on Pitt’s campus is the Heinz Chapel “Women in the Windows” tour. This is a tour that focuses on specific aspects of the chapel, from stained glass window panels to stone engravings, that represent and are dedicated to women and their achievements. 

Each year, Karen Sebolt, director of Heinz Chapel, centers the tour around the National Women’s History Alliance’s theme of the year. With this year’s theme, “Moving Forward Together! Women Educating & Inspiring Generations,” in mind, she selected a group of women who made invaluable contributions to religious, medicinal and academic education all across the world. 

Sebolt identified a total of 18 women in the chapel’s windows who she felt fit this theme of education and empowerment and selected 11 to share with tour groups. Abigail Adams, mentioned above for the famous words she wrote to her husband, was one of the women highlighted in this year’s tour, as the education of women was one of her lifelong missions. Other notable figures included in the tour were Florence Nightingale, founder of the American Red Cross; Clara Barton, nurse and educator; Emily Brontë, famous author and teacher; and Elizabeth Fry, prison reformer and educator. 

Built between 1933 and 1938 with funds established in a trust left behind by Henry John Heinz, who wanted a church erected in honor of his mother, the Heinz Memorial Chapel stands on Pitt’s campus today as a space for multifaith worship and community gathering.

When Sebolt started her job in 2017, she wanted to find a way to share the achievements of the many women who adorn the stained glass windows of the chapel, which is why she started the tour.

“I’m a mom of two girls, and when they were young, we were a part of Girl Scouts and every March we would always look at themes that we could get them involved with and I thought it was great that March was dedicated to women,” Sebolt said. “I’ve learned a lot about women, and hopefully I’m passing on that learning through the tour.” 

Bonnie Anderson, a Pittsburgh resident who attended the tour, enjoyed getting to learn about the history and accomplishments of women she was unfamiliar with.

“There were several women who I had never heard of, and to learn their brief history makes me want to learn a little bit more about them,” Anderson said.

Another attendee, Connie Ozer, feels that celebrating women and Women’s History Month, especially women who made contributions to the field of education, is more important now than ever before.

“I think it’s especially meaningful that we’re doing this when the education department in the United States is being obliterated,” Ozer said. “There were so many times throughout the tour when I thought of [diversity, equality and inclusion] and all of the important work these women did to contribute to this, and thought, ‘What are we doing here?’”

Researching these women and putting together a brief history of their accomplishments is Sebolt’s favorite part of curating this tour every year. Her research of the women represented in the windows helps her piece together the puzzle of the windows and their symbolism.

“Once you start to look at these people and dig in and start reading and finding out about their backgrounds, where they came from, et cetera, then some of the things in the windows start to make sense,” Sebolt said. “And so then you start putting the pieces of the puzzle of window pane’s symbols, such as, why is she holding the chains? She’s breaking the chains which shows her work towards prison reform. That kind of thing.”

Overall, though, Sebolt has committed to facilitating this tour for the past eight years because she feels the women represented in the chapel’s windows have stories that need to be told.

“There are so many women who you would not have known what their legacy was without having the excuse of a month to talk about them, so I think it’s an important thing to continue,” Sebolt said. 

The 2025 Heinz Chapel Women in the Windows tour will continue to run throughout the last week of March. Tickets are available on the Heinz Chapel website.