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From roughly 2009 to 2011, she spent her lunch hours and much of her free time looking for colored photos of the dome or the original design. “I started working on this and then I realized, 'You know, if I really love stained glass so much, why don't I do it?'”Ĭreating the rendition proved to be a taller task than Bergman could have foreseen, however. “I've always had a huge love for stained glass,” Bergman said. She quickly worked her way through nearly every class offered. #Possible lost masterpiece found crackedWhile researching what the old dome looked like, Bergman began taking stained glass courses at Cracked Glass, a stained glass company in Urbana. (Image courtesy of the University of Illinois Archives.) This is the only historical image of the glass dome over the library in Altgeld Hall that Jane Bergman could find. And so, she set off on her mission to make her own rendition.īergman is artsy - she decorated her wedding dress with light blue Swarovski beads, for example, to match her husband’s eyes - and figured that she could learn the skills needed to create something that would allow others to see the beauty that the dome once possessed. Long before she was aware of the current renovation plans, however, Bergman wanted to remind people of the beauty of the original work. Now, with the design firms of CannonDesign and Bailey Edward in the process of planning the renovation, with completion for Altgeld Hall set for 2024, the possibility of restoring or recreating the stained glass dome is, in fact, being investigated, according to building officials. Still, she began work on a replica in hopes that Altgeld Hall would someday be renovated-and that a stained glass dome would be part of it. The dome had been taken down over a decade prior, in 1942.īergman, an office manager for the Department of Mathematics, knew that Altgeld Hall was in need of renovation, but a renovation seemed to be a remote possibility in 2008 when she discovered that the dome had once existed. More than a decade of work later, through countless hours of painstaking research and artistry, Bergman has created a replica of the old dome some 77 years after it was taken down and plastered over.Īltgeld Hall last underwent major renovations in 1956, when the School of Law left and the Department of Mathematics moved in. ![]() That’s why Bergman’s discovery in 2008 that there was once a large, stained glass dome over the library in Altgeld Hall, her very place of work, made such an impact on the university employee. #Possible lost masterpiece found windows“I was gazing at the enchanting brilliance of the sunlight streaming through the beautiful stained glass windows of the church. Patrick’s Church in Urbana) while people were singing,” Bergman said. “My very first memory is being held by my mother (in St. Jane Bergman has always held a special spot in her heart for the brilliance of stained glass. ![]() Jane Bergman displays her replica of the glass dome that once overlooked the library in Altgeld Hall. ![]()
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