The Morse Museum of American Art in Winter Park, FL, contains the most comprehensive collection of Louis Comfort Tiffany’s works, including his advertised lamps, unique leaded glass windows, and mosaic masterpiece. Also included is the chapel he designed for the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago.
The Morse’s Park Avenue galleries opened on July 4, 1995. They developed from former bank and office buildings. The redesign joined two buildings with a tower in a simple modified Mediterranean style intended to blend in with the surrounding urban landscape. Today, after further expansion to install the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair Tiffany Chapel, the Museum has more than 11,000 square feet of display space, nearly three times the gallery space at its former location on Welbourne Avenue.
Jeannette Genius McKean founded the Museum formerly known as the Morse Art Gallery on the Rollins College campus in 1942. The Museum was relocated to Welbourne Avenue in 1977, and its name was changed to the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art.
Since its opening 10 years ago on Park Avenue, the Museum has worked to strengthen both the aesthetic and academic quality of the exhibits it assembles from the collection that the McKeans assembled over a period of 50 years.
Free Friday night
Every Friday night from early November to late April, the Morse Museum of American Art in Winter Park stays open later and is free to visitors in the evening.
Laurelton Hall
Tiffany’s Long Island estate, Laurelton Hall, featuring nearly 100 Tiffany Mansion memorabilia, including leaded glass windows, blown glass and pottery, historic photos and architectural plans. The museum also has a distinguished collection of American art ceramics and a representative collection of American painting and decorative art from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Tiffany’s Daffodil Terrace
The expansion features the fully restored Daffodil Terrace of the famous Long Island home at Tiffany, Laurelton Hall, and approximately 250 art and architecture objects from the long-lost estate. Highlights include award-winning leaded glass windows and iconic Tiffany lamps, as well as custom glass art and furniture.
Free public events at the museum
- Christmas in the park
- Christmas Eve Open House
- Winter Park Sidewalk Art Festival – The museum is open to the public during the festival.
- Easter Weekend Open House – The museum is open to the public, Friday through Sunday, Easter weekend.
- Independence Day Open House – The Museum is open on Independence Day in conjunction with the City of Winter Park’s ancient 4th of July celebration in Central Park.
Free entry on Christmas Eve
On December 24, the Morse invites the public to the museum’s galleries to enjoy, free of charge, works including Louis Comfort Tiffany’s century-old leaded glass windows and his famous 1893 chapel.
As is traditional, the “Christmas Eve” window will be the focal point of this annual outdoor exhibition. This window, designed by Thomas Nast Jr., son of the famous political cartoonist, produced around 1902 by Tiffany Studios, will be displayed at the Morse after Christmas in the park.
Eight leaded glass windows, selected from Morse’s world-famous Tiffany Collection, will set the stage for the free outdoor concert of seasonal favorites from the Bach 150-Voice Festival Choir, one of America’s premier oratory ensembles. United.
Seven of the windows are religious-themed memorials that were produced by Tiffany Studios for the chapel built in 1908 for the Association for the Relief of Indigent Women of Respectable Age in New York. When the residence was threatened with demolition in 1974, Hugh and Jeannette McKean, the couple who assembled the Morse collection, purchased the Tiffany chapel windows at the request of the Association’s board. The Association’s residence is now on the National Register of Historic Places.
The two-hour program begins at 6:00 pm on the first Thursday in December, when the signal will be given to turn on the window lights. The rain date will be the following night at the same time.
The Byzantine-inspired chapel, a mosaic and glass masterpiece designed for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, established Tiffany’s reputation internationally and is one of the artist’s last surviving interiors. The chapel opened on the Morse in 1999. Only during the holidays, the museum also displays the 1902 Tiffany window, “Christmas Eve,” designed by the famous cartoonist Thomas Nast.
The Winter Park Museum has an open house to the public each Christmas Eve to provide a peaceful respite from the busy holiday season.
