The age-old tradition of inscribing graffiti in windowpanes with diamond rings goes back at least to Queen Elizabeth I in England. Imprisoned by her half sister Mary I while still a mere princess in 1554, she wrote acerbic verses on a window in the Tower of London. The practice was common in England and America up until the 20th century.
In this country, the most famous example is that of Nathaniel Hawthorne and his wife Sophia, who engraved romantic musings on the home they rented in Concord, Massachusetts - the Old Manse - during their 3-year honeymoon there in the 1840s.
The custom even reached Whidbey Island, where an echo of it survives in the 1866 Haller House. Long-time residents of the house, the Willhight family, found the signatures of all the Haller family inscribed in windowpanes upstairs when they moved in in 1952. They were inspired to leave their own marks in the bay windows of the east parlor in the 1960s - inscriptions that still survive (though sadly, the Hallers’ 1870s signatures do not not).
We at Historic Whidbey are inspired by the tradition, too! Our reconstruction of the Hallers’ large conservatory bay window gives us an extraordinary opportunity to invite our supporters to inscribe their names for posterity as well.
We have 94 individual windowpanes available for inscribing the names of you or someone you love! (We reserve 2 panes to reproduce the Hallers’ originals.)
All panes have been sold!
