The Book of the Fair - Chapters 10-11



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Chapter the Tenth:
Liberal Arts

To the department of Liberal Arts was assigned a floor space of 400,000 
square feet, or more than ten times the room allotted for similar purposes 
at the Centennial Exposition. It was at first intended to place the 
exhibits in the southern end of the hall of Manufactures, and about 
equally divided between its ground and gallery floors. But as finally 
arranged, the only group on the main floor is that of musical instruments, 
which occupies nearly 70,000 feet in the southeastern portion. Here is a 
large and varied display of organs and pianos, fashioned by some of the 
foremost makers in the United states, with historical collections and 
handsome pavilions devoted to special exhibits, national and individual. 

Of foreign powers only Russia and Austria are represented by small 
exhibits, the Austrian collection forming a combined display of Viennese 
musical manufactures, among which the zithers are especially noticeable 
for superior Viennese musical manufactures, among which the zithers are 
especially noticeable for superior workmanship. The entire department has 
many specimens of self-vibrating pieces; of stringed instruments played 
with the fingers and the bow, as banjos, guitars, harps, and violins; 
those provided with key-boards, and wind instruments, from simple fifes to 
complicated orchestral pieces or huge orchestrions. 

Chief among the historic groups, and indeed the only one that can be 
termed a purely historic collection, is that of L. Steinert, of New Haven, 
who exhibits, among other curios, Bach's clavichord, one of the earliest 
of Keyed instruments, which gives forth a thin and feeble tone. The 
collection includes several specimens of old-fashioned harpsichords and 
spinets, among them Mozart's spinet, upon which he composed many of his 
grand sonatas. There is also Beethoven's grand piano of six and a half 
octaves, with frame of rosewood and hinges of brass. Near this is Haydn's 
piano in a white oaken case, of deeper and fuller tone than most of the 
earlier instruments. 

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Other interesting relics are an eighteenth century harpsichord, with 
double board and keys of tortoise shell and ivory, its case profusely 
decorated with floral designs, and a piano built in London in 1776 for 
Martha Washington. 

The exhibits of the United States cover the entire range of musical 
appliances, including not only all modern instruments, but their 
accessories, and the materials of which they are made. New York 
manufactures display, for instance, felts, hammers, wheels, discs, and 
cones, with spruce sounding-boards made from forest woods in the 
Adirondacks. In their pavilion are also illustrated the various processes 
in the manufacture of felt, from the raw material to the finished product. 
A Boston house exhibits in the way of musical specialties pianos, cabinet 
organs, one of the last decorated in white and gold, and its pipe top 
representing the Bay State capitol on Beacon Hill. But the largest 
collection is that of a Chicago firm, in whose two-story pavilion, 
decorated in terra cotta and gold, are many rare and costly instruments. 
One division is filled with harps of massive workmanship, highly polished 
and ingeniously decorated, ranging in value from $700 to $2,200. In an 
adjoining case are dainty mandolins and guitars, one of the latter a 
Stradivarius of the date of 1680, for at times the great artificer 
fashioned other musical instruments than violins. In an adjoining section 
is an array of banjos, and elsewhere are bass drums, and huge batons with 
massive heads and gold and silver. Together with the drums and batons is a 
strange looking stringed instrument, the body of which is a large bamboo. 
This is a reproduction of the mahati, or great vina, one of the favorite 
instruments of Upper India during the thirteenth century. In this pavilion 
a winding stairway leads from the main exhibits on the ground floor to a 
small recital hall above, where daily concerts are given by performers on 
the harp and guitar. 

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But the bulk of the musical exhibits, and the choicest specimens of 
mechanical and artistic workmanship, are found in the hundreds of pianos, 
which testify more than all else to the growing tastes of music loving 
people. Mahogany, rosewood, satin wood, ebony, cedar, oak, ash - all the 
cabinet woods of the tropic and temperate zones - enter into their 
construction. Some are enamelled; some are finished in white and gold; 
others in ebony and gold; many being elaborately carved, though not a few 
are merely painted by hand. In style of architecture they differ almost as 
widely as the homes of the Fair, and this remark applies also to the 
organs, of which there is a choice collection. 

To the educational groups were assigned about 175,000 square feet, 
including the entire southern aisle of the gallery, and a portion of the 
eastern and western aisles adjacent. Here is probably the most 
comprehensive collection of the kind every brought together, including 
specimens, descriptions, apparatus, models, and programmes pertaining to 
every grade and class of education, from the kindergarten to the 
university, and to schools of medicine, law, and the mechanic arts. To 
these groups more than thirty states and territories have contributed, 
with several foreign powers, and some fifty universities and colleges; but 
of the four acres or more of educational exhibits therein contained, only 
the more salient and interesting features can here be noticed. 

In the sections occupied by the United States is fully illustrated the 
progress of 

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educational science within the brief span of years that have elapsed since 
the opening of the Centennial Exposition. The kindergarten or play-school 
system which Friederich Frobel introduced in Germany, well nigh half a 
century ago, was then in its infancy. As to the Pestalozzian system there 
were few, even among professional teachers, who knew anything more than 
its name. Manual training schools were almost unknown, and if in the 
Philadelphia display there was anything suggestive of methods more 
advanced than those which had sufficed for at least the lifetime of a 
generation, it is not recorded in the annals of her Fair. Memorizing was 
then, as today it is, an all too prominent feature in the curriculum, and 
especially the memorizing of rules which, on leaving school or college, 
the student will surely make hast to forget. 

To each of the exhibiting states is allotted a separate space in the group 
to which it belongs, and where are represented not only its public school 
system, but its denominational, normal, scientific, technical, and other 
schools and colleges. There are also collective exhibits showing the 
organization and management of school libraries, of commercial and 
industrial schools, of schools where trades are taught, and of 
institutions for the deaf and dumb, the blind and feeble-minded. A feature 
of the entire display is the specimens of handwork, with drawings and 
maps, essays, and answers to given questions on subjects assigned to the 
pupils of participating institutions, thus showing the achievements and 
acquirements of their alumni as the result of scholastic training. 
Statistics are 

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presented both in the form of text and diagrams, showing school 
populations, the ratios of elementary, secondary, and superior education, 
race, sex, attendance, revenue, and other data in this connection. 

Of the fourteen million pupils and 400,000 teachers represented in the 
educational exhibits of the United States, about one-tenth belong to the 
state of New York, to which was allotted a liberal space in the southern 
aisle of the gallery, and thence northward in a parallel line with the 
Massachusetts section. On a chart fourteen feet square, made by the pupils 
of the Albany high school, are portrayed in attractive form the school 
statistics of New York. Of the products of her manual training schools 
there are selected samples. In 150 phonographs may be noted the various 
systems of singing as taught in as many schools. Of kindergarten specimens 
there is a large collection, especially from Rochester, Buffalo, and 
Albany, with photographs showing the children at work or play. Beginning 
with the best work of the primary grades, we come to that of the 
intermediate grades, and then to the exhibits of high schools and 
academies, culminating with those of Columbia college and other 
institutions in which are represented our higher system of education. 

Founded in 1784, the state university has no counterpart in this republic, 
for with it are affiliated some 500 colleges and academies, and in its 
system are included the state library, the state museum, and other 
libraries and museums admitted by the regents to association. The 
university of the city of New York has on exhibition the publications of 
the faculty for the past sixty years, among them the works of John W. 
Draper, whose History of the Intellectual Development of Europe has been 
translated into a score of languages. There are also scientific apparatus 
invented by the professors, with charts and papers illustrating their 
methods of teaching and examination. Of special interest is a photographic 
portrait of Draper's sister, taken by the historian 

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in person, presented to Sir John Herschel, and recently found among the 
posthumous papers of the great astronomer. This is probably one of the 
oldest of existing photographs of the human face. Another curiosity is the 
original battery used by Samuel Morse, fashioned in the room now occupied 
by the junior class of the University law school. On the label of the case 
which contains it is the following extract from an address delivered by 
Morse at a meeting of the alumni in 1853: "Your Philomathean hall - the 
room I occupied - that room in the university was the birthplace of the 
recording telegraph." 

To the Massachusetts section many cities and towns have contributed, 
forming a complete illustration of her educational methods and results. As 
in the New York and other sections, the public-school exhibits lead up to 
and are connected with those of higher institutions of learning, at the 
head of which is the university; for such is the system generally adopted 
by exhibiting states. Of the elaborate collections of Harvard, Yale, 
Princeton, and other universities and colleges, grouped as many of them 
are in proximity, it is unnecessary here to make other than passing 
mention. They include among their exhibits, pictures, diagrams, and models 
of their buildings and grounds, their museums, libraries, laboratories, 
and assembly-halls, with college and other publications, and with 
portraits of professors and alumni who have won for themselves distinction 
and repute. There are also manuscripts, missals, charters, and other 
documents in the original or in facsimile, with relics and curios that 
cannot be purchased for gems or gold. In this allusion to university and 
college displays, the term is here applied to such institutions proper; 
for in the United States the word college is of wide application, and in 
these booths is a vast range of illustrations, from these in Latin and 
Greek to plates showing the relative values of lucerne and oaten hay. 

In connection with these exhibits may be mentioned that of the College 
fraternity, whose site in the northwest corner of the gallery is marked by 
a reproduction of the Choragic monument of Lysicrates. The side walls of 
the pavilion are in imitation of ebony, with gilt ornamentation; and here 
are the badges characteristic of the so-called Greek letter societies. In 
bookcases is contained the literature of the fraternity, in the form of 
bound volumes, magazines, and college annals, and under the clear-story 
window included in their space are portraits of their prominent men, with 
charters, symbols, and historic documents. 

Near the Massachusetts section, and extending thence westward along the 
southern aisle, are the groups of other New England states, each with a 
characteristic display. A feature in their collections, and especially in 
the Connecticut section, is the sewing work represented in articles of 
attire or domestic use, most of it handiwork of girls under twelve years 
of age. Except for New York, Pennsylvania has the largest collection among 
the middle states, and one of excellent quality, for her educational 
system is on a par with her material greatness, as is attested by the 
superior workmanship and finish of her specimens. New Jersey has a compact 
and skillfully combined exhibit, with many original and suggestive 
features. 

Ohio is mainly represented in the separate exhibits of three of her 
principal cities, Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Toledo, these being the only 
instances in which city schools occupy a prominent place. Missouri, with 
her ample school fund, has a good display of educational work, with a 
chart showing the location of her 

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school-houses, and filled with statistical and other information. In 
Louisiana's exhibit is fully illustrated the progress of the southern 
states, New Orleans contributing the bulk of the collection. Minnesota's 
section is arranged with a view to artistic effect, and of special 
interest are the specimens from the manual training schools of 
Minneapolis, Duluth, and Stillwater, and those of children's sewing which 
St. Paul and Minneapolis have furnished. In the booths of Iowa are maps, 
drawings, photographs, statistics, and other collections in which are 
portrayed all the branches of her educational system. Colorado, though one 
of the youngest of the states, has furnished sufficient evidence that she 
is one of the most progressive in educational, as in other matters. In 
addition to numerous articles of school-work, the artistic qualities of 
her school architecture is shown in photographs, and there are models of 
the first school-house and the new high-school building completed in 1892 
at Colorado Springs. California and Oregon are strongly represented, the 
former by an elaborate and the latter by a compact exhibit of school and 
college systems, appliances, and results. 

As to other participating states and territories, what has already been 
said will serve to indicate the general character of their display. Their 
remains, however, to be described, the largest of all the educational 
groups, that of the catholic exhibit, occupying 29,000 square feet in the 
eastern aisle of the gallery. To gather and classify this collection was 
almost a three years' task, and as the result we have one of the most 
attractive features in the department of Liberal Arts; attractive to all 
classes of visitors, whatever their creed or sect. In no sense of the word 
is this a sectarian demonstration; nor is it in the nature of a religious 
propaganda, except so far as it represents the influence of the church on 
the education of its people, forming a material exposition of what the 
church has done and is doing for the cause of education. In a word it is 
what it pretends to be, and that is a school and college exhibit under 
catholic auspices. 

At a meeting held in Boston in July, 1890, about which time, it will be 
remembered, the Exposition began to assume tangible shape, the archbishops 
of the United States, with Cardinal Gibbons at their head, extended an 
invitation to the principals of all catholic institutions of learning to 
aid in preparing and organizing the exhibits. The preliminary arrangements 
were made in Chicago and St. Louis, Bishop Spaulding accepting the 
presidency, and Brother Maurelian the office of secretary and manager of 
the commission. Then quietly and steadily they went to work, and with such 
good will that in the completed collection are represented nearly all 
their educational establishments throughout the republic, with many beyond 
the seas. In addition to the exhibits of parish schools, academies, 
colleges, and universities, are those of normal schools, of schools of 
science and technology, of commercial, industrial, and manual training 
schools, of schools for negroes and Indians, of kindergartens and 
orphanages, and of benevolent and reformatory institutes. 

Almost in the centre of the group is a statue of Archbishop Feehan, carved 
in Carrara marble, and of chaste and elegant design. This was presented by 
the priests of the diocese of Chicago, and on the pedestal is inscribed 
beneath his name the simple legend: "The Protector of our Schools." Around 
it are arranged in booths the exhibits of the various dioceses of which 
nearly all the principal schools are represented. The collections include 
every 

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description and grade of educational work; but with no distinctive 
classification of the various grades, as in those of the public schools. 
Of parish schools several hundred are here represented, the dioceses of 
Chicago, Philadelphia, and Buffalo having the largest number. Add to these 
the exhibits of higher institutions of learning, and of industrial, 
charitable, and reformatory institutes, and some idea may be formed as to 
the magnitude of the display, representing, as it does, the aggregate 
results accomplished by all the numerous orders of priesthood and 
sisterhood, to whose care are intrusted the educational interests of 
catholic America. 

Among the more interesting exhibits is the display of industrial work, not 
arranged, as elsewhere in separate groups, but in the booths of the 
several dioceses, where side by side are specimens from schools of 
technology, orphan asylums, and reformatory schools; for in these classes 
of work the church makes no distinction. In certain of the booths, 
however, there are special displays, as in that of the St. Nicholas reform 
school at Paris, where are musical instruments, tapestries, laces and 
draperies, silver-plated ware, and decorative articles in bronze and 
copper, all these and others the handiwork of the pupils. Several booths 
are filled with samples from New York orphanage, including, among others, 
wood-carvings, mechanical drawings, metal-work, and brush and rope-making. 
And so with the diocesan collections, for in most of the dioceses are 
similar asylums, and one or more industrial and manual-training schools. 

Of school and college buildings, with their chapels, classrooms, lecture-
halls, libraries, and grounds, there are many drawings, paintings, and 
photographs. In graphic art are also represented groups of students and 
teachers, of music and sewing classes, and the workshops of training and 
industrial schools. Of paintings on porcelain, of free-hand crayons, 
mechanical and perspective drawings, and drawings from nature, there is a 
large collection, together with maps and hypsometric models of cities and 
countries. Printing and type-writing, plain and ornamental, electrotyping, 
carpentry, shoe-making, tailoring, needle-work, wax-work, as well as other 
useful arts and industries, are represented in the catholic exhibit. 

Elsewhere in the educational section are the special exhibits of 
industrial and training schools, art and medical schools, business 
colleges, asylums, and other institutions not connected with the catholic 
church. Among the training schools represented are those of Chicago, St. 
Louis, Cincinnati, Baltimore, and Toledo, the Carlisle Indian school, and 
the Hampton Normal and Agricultural institute for Indians and negroes, the 
two last pleading in silent eloquence for these wards of the republic. 
Worthy of note are the leather manufactures in the form of harness, 
satchels, trunks, and shoes, and the carved and inlaid wood and cabinet 
work. 

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The groups representing asylums for the deaf, dumb, blind, and feeble-
minded form an elaborate display, and one in which are fully illustrated 
the most humane and intelligent methods of treatment and training. Manual 
work of a rough description the visitor would probably expect to find 
among the exhibits of schools for the blind; but to see there printed 
publications, free-hand drawings, and the finest of crochet work is 
somewhat of a surprise. A Washington institute for the deaf has 
contributed a replica of the monument erected at the national capital in 
honor of Gallaudet the elder, by whom was founded in Philadelphia the 
first American institute for deaf-mutes. Even from insane asylums are 
specimens of useful workmanship, for in such are not a few possessed of 
the rational faculty in a greater degree than many outside their walls. 

Among the art institute represented in this department are those of 
Chicago and St. Louis, the Cooper union, the Boston museum and the New 
York art students' league, her academy of arts, and her Philadelphia 
school of design. In all these exhibits are illustrated by specimens the 
several courses in drawing and designing, together with systems of 
instruction, and their results in the competitive display of classes and 
pupils. In the medical section are the exhibits of eclectic, homoeopathic, 
pharmaceutic, and other colleges. 

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The principal business colleges of the United States, apart from those 
under catholic auspices, have a collective display in the western gallery, 
with specimens of penmanship, stenography, and telegraphy, together with a 
class-room in actual operation, showing the workings of such institutions. 
Finally in the exhibits of Wellesley, Mount Holyoke, and other colleges 
and seminaries, together with those of several art schools, is represented 
the education of women. 

Among foreign powers Germany has the largest of the educational exhibits, 
in her 22,000 square feet of space in the western gallery. And here in 
truth is a display well worthy of a country famed for her thorough and 
scientific system of education, one in which the student may read that 
system almost as thoroughly as though he had traveled thousands of miles 
to study it. In this collection is a complete and explicit demonstration 
of the methods employed in the various grades, with plans, illustrations, 
statistics, and such other data as may render those methods intelligible. 
There are maps showing the location of all the higher institutions of 
learning, with paintings, photographs, and models of German schools, and 
geographical charts, some of them 400 years old, side by side with those 
of modern date. 

The educational exhibits proper are classed in three divisions, in two of 
which are those relating to public, normal, and high schools, to colleges 
of various grades, to asylums, and to the training of teachers. Among 
these collections are specimens of pupils' work, not specially prepared 
for the purpose, but selected as a fair illustration of what is being 
accomplished in the various school departments, including the manual 
training schools. In the high school section are represented the latest 
and most practical teaching methods, especially in the natural sciences, 
which occupy an important place in the curriculum. There are also the 
annual reports of all the higher institutions of learning, including those 
for 1892, with histories of some of the oldest and most celebrated 
schools. 

But the most interesting of all the exhibits is that of the universities, 
twenty in number, and occupying about one-half of the space allotted to 
the German section. While in part of a special character, and intended to 
illustrate their leading education features, there is much that is of 
general interest. First of all are large photographic views of the 
buildings, with elaborate plans and descriptions of each. On the walls are 
portraits of eminent professors and men of science, among them one of 
Alexander von Humboldt, of Kekule, and August Wilhelm Hofmann, from the 
royal library and national gallery of Berlin. Of autographs and 
autographic letters there is a choice collection, including those of 
Charlemagne, Louis the German, Karl I, Goethe, Schiller, Kant, Winkelmann, 
and a despatch to the great ex-chancellor from Wilhelm I. On a facsimile 
of a page in the church register at Bonn is recorded the birthday of 
Beethoven; all these and other treasures from university and state 
libraries, which have contributed, in 3,000 handsomely bound volumes, the 
best works of German scientists, inventors, and discoverers, with all the 
leading scientific periodicals. 

Together with models of ancient and modern laboratories and apparatus for 
scientific investigations are reproduced many of the principal inventions 
and appliances, including the telegraphic instrument fashioned by Gauss 
and Weber, in which is embodied Faraday's system of insulation, and the 
apparatus with which Kirchoff and Bunsen developed their method of 
spectrum analysis. There is also the first mirror which 

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Helmholtz constructed, and the air-pump which Otto von Guericke invented 
in 1650. A Guessfeld outfit includes all that is usually needed for 
scientific and exploring expeditions, and in botanical tables and charts 
is illustrated the mode of introducing and propagating exotic plants. 

Of chemical specimens, small in size but large in number, there is a 
valuable assortment, mainly from the German chemical society, and so with 
mineralogy, zoology, and other natural sciences, most of which are here 
represented; but for the speculative sciences there is no place in the 
German section. A special exhibit by Rudolph Virchow, one of the foremost 
of pathologists, is in the form of a lecture hall, specially equipped for 
his purpose, and with a large anatomical collection; in another is 
reproduced an operating and dissecting room, and a third consists of a 
food collection for army and other purposes where concentrated nourishment 
must be produced at the smallest cost. But of all the special exhibits, 
perhaps the most interesting is that of bacteriological specimens and 
apparatus by Robert Koch, with bacilli of all known varieties stored in 
glass cases, and the instruments with which they are detected and placed 
under the light of the microscope. 

In connection with the German section may also be mentioned the display of 
scientific instruments by more than forty manufactures, fully sustaining 
the high repute of German craftsmen in this direction. Among them are 
lenses of all descriptions and sizes, and in every stage of manufacture, 
from the rough pebble or glass to the finished article, with photographs 
from such as are used in that art, as nearly perfect as photographs can 
be. For these and for optical and surveying instruments, both of which are 
here represented, there is 

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a large and increasing foreign demand. The astronomical instruments are of 
superior finish and precision, with ingenious methods for minimizing the 
effect of errors in construction. 

Somewhat in contrast with Germany's elaborate display is England's 
exhibit, in which there is less to interest, less even than in those of 
her dependencies of Canada and New South Wales. This calls to mind the 
fact that England was among the last of the great powers to accept, as a 
nation, the responsibility of providing methods and means for public 
education. It was not until recent years that the evolution of her public 
school system was fairly commenced, and even yet she has no such coherent 
and comprehensive system as those of Germany and the United States. In the 
mother country the phrase public school is applied to Eton, Harrow, Rugby, 
and other endowed institutions, some of them founded in the fourteenth, 
and not a few in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. These and others 
established by religious denominations or through private benefactions, 
were, apart from her universities and private schools, about all that 
England had to show in the way of education. 

In the exhibits of the London school board are specimens of writing, map-
drawing, designing, modeling, wood, iron, brass, needle, and kindergarten 
work, with school-books, materials, apparatus, models, and diagrams. Some 
are framed or pasted on cards, an to others cards are attached with 
inscriptions, giving the names of exhibitor and exhibit. From the 
Whitechapel craft school are drawings and models illustrating the system 
of manual instruction. In the exhibit of the Oxford examination schools 
are portrayed the history and method of university extension. Trinity 
College, Dublin, has a collection of anatomical models, and from schools 
of art are some of the drawings, paintings, models, and designs executed 
by their pupils. 

In this connection may be mentioned the elaborate collection of 
photographs, adjacent to the educational display, in which are represented 
most of the prominent photographers of 

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Great Britain. There are also engravings, etchings, and photogravures from 
art societies and art publishing firms and associations. Elsewhere in this 
section are specimens of book-binding, and an assortment of newspapers 
illustrating the development and characteristics of British journalism. 

Canada is represented by the educational exhibits of the provinces of 
Quebec and Ontario, housed in cheerful and tastefully furnished booths. 
Here are contributions from some 200 of the principal schools, most of 
them under catholic auspices, and including all branches of education, 
from primary to high school grades and special course. Classroom work is 
freely distributed, with samples skillfully arranged, and displaying the 
aptitude and proficiency of the pupils. Of excellent quality are the 
relief-maps, the specimens of ornamental drawing and penmanship, and the 
embroidery and other needlework, the last from the institutions of the 
sisters of Notre Dame. Elsewhere in this section, and of similar 
character, are the collections of secular schools and colleges, with 
representations of the educational systems of the northwest provinces. In 
galleries of photographs are depicted scenes in the Rocky mountains, in 
Nova Scotia, and on the banks of the St. Lawrence, together with the 
public buildings of Ottawa. Of musical instruments there is a small 
assortment, and the Scotch element finds expression in a display of 
curling stones of Toronto manufacture. 

In the narrow space allotted to New South Wales are several hundred 
photographs in the highest style of art, portraying the history of Sydney, 
almost from the day when the British flag was unfurled on the shores of 
Port Jackson amid a group of naked, gibbering savages. Among them is one 
of the largest photographs in existence, reproducing the harbor of Sydney, 
one of the most beautiful in the world, and the largest on the southern 
continent except for Hobson's bay where Melbourne sits enthroned, and in 
the centre of which its shores appear in faintest outline, even under the 
bright Australian sky. In other photographs are depicted the public 
buildings and statuary of the metropolis, her parks and pleasure grounds, 
with the mountain and river scenery, the forestry and agriculture of a 
colony almost equal in area to the entire Pacific coast. There are also 
collections of water colors, one representing the animals, another the 
birds indigenous to the country, and supporting the Australian coat-of-
arms, over the entrance to the pavilion, are the largest kangaroo and the 
largest emu that could be secured and stuffed for the purpose. Of natural 
specimens there is a choice assortment, including birds of brilliant 
plumage, and the web-footed ornithorhyncus, or platypus, with the bill of 
a duck, the eyes of a fish, and the fur of a seal. The Technological 
museum has a display of classified wools, and many varieties of timber and 
plants of economic value. For journalism a corner is reserved, while 
educational exhibits in the stricter sense of the term are restricted to 
those of the public schools, and to specimens of work from the deaf and 
dumb institute under government auspices. 

The exhibits of France in the eastern aisle of the gallery consist largely 
of samples of work from her polytechnic and training schools, both of 
which are prominent features in the educational system of this country. 
The public schools are also represented, as are the commercial and night 
schools. All the exhibits are grouped 

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with the true artistic taste of the Frenchman, forming, as a whole, a 
complete illustration of school life, with exercises and examinations, and 
with text-books arranged in regular order and adapted to every grade, from 
the primary school to the university. 

But the most interesting feature in this section is a representation of 
the library systems of France, together with her stationers', 
booksellers', and bookbinders' trades. Among rare and valuable works is De 
Lamennais' Imitation de Jesus Christ, its 102 quarto pages all decorated 
in different designs, with four large pictures from manuscripts of the 
thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries, and with ciselure work such as is 
found in the illuminated manuscripts of bygone ages. A priceless treasure 
is the Heures, belonging to the first quarter of the thirteenth century, 
in small octavo on vellum, with French and Latin characters, and 
miniatures painted on gold ground in relief, all in the purest of classic 
style. Other curiosities are a reproduction in old morocco of Madame de 
Pompadour's writing-case, with flowers in mosaic; a prayer-book with 
borders, miniatures, and Gothic letters executed in silk; a Livre de 
Marriage, with bas-relief in carved ivory, and a card-case representing 
the finest cuir-cisele work of the renaissance. Still another rare work 
describes the triumphant entry of Charles IX into his capital, and in Ces 
Presentes Heures, Paris, 1498, is a miniature figure of an angel, copied 
from the prayer-book of Anne of Britanny. 

Under the auspices of the Cercle de la Librairie, founded in 1847 on the 
eve of the revolution, and including more than 400 members, a catalogue 
was specially prepared for the occasion, containing much that is of 
interest. Here may be read the history of the more famous printing and 
publishing houses, one of them founded in the seventeenth and several in 
the eighteenth century; for in France a business, once fairly established 
is often preserved in the family for several generations. Sixty of the 
members of this association are represented in the French section, and 
among their exhibits are many choice works, especially in ouvrages de lux. 
Of these may be mentioned Les Maitres Florentins de XV Siecle, with 
illustrations from original paintings and sculptures in the Thiers 
collection; the first of two folio volumes by Edouard Rouveyre, relating 
to the manuscripts of Leonardo de Vinci, with copies of the originals; 
Charles Blanc's Histoire des Peintres, and le Vasseur's editions of Buffon 
and La Fontaine. Other editions de luxe are from a publishing house in 
Tours, whose establishment covers six acres in the heart of the city and 
from which are issued several millions of volumes a year. Other 
publications 

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worthy of note are illustrated editions of Victor Hugo's works, one in 
forty-eight and another in seventy volumes, and those of Sir Walter Scott 
in thirty volumes, of which only twelve are on exhibition, with 
illustrations by the foremost of French artists, costing or to cost, when 
completed some twenty years hence, the sum of $150,000. 

Russia has much to show in her 1,000 square feet of gallery space, largely 
occupied by specimens from hundreds of orphan and other asylums with their 
hundreds of thousands of inmates. Among their specimens of needlework is a 
beautiful piece of embroidery representing the arrival at Russian ports of 
American vessels laden with grain. This is the handiwork of St. Petersburg 
school-girls from twelve to fourteen years of age, and at the close of the 
Fair is to be presented, as a token of gratitude, to the wife of President 
Cleveland, while for the president himself was fashioned a mantel ornament 
in gold and silver thread, interwoven on a background of dark red silk. 
From national and private schools and other educational and charitable 
institutions are many collections, and especially from those under 
imperial patronage. In addition to samples of work are models, charts, 
statistics, and illustrations pertaining to matters educational throughout 
the broad realm of the tzar. These, together with everything else 
contained in the department of Liberal Arts, except for a few articles of 
special value, are to be distributed among the benevolent and other 
institutes of the United States. 

Among the exhibits grouped in this section is that of the postal service, 
with life-sized figures of officials, and with mail-pouches littering the 
tables and floor as though cast aside by the carriers. The carriers 
themselves are represented in realistic fashion by models and pictures, 
one traveling over the snow in a reindeer sledge, another in a cumbersome 
horse cart, and a third mounted on a camel, with others toiling afoot 
through rugged mountain passes, the entire group being intended to 
illustrate the difficulties connected with the service and the means by 
which they are overcome throughout the broad realm of the Russias, 
covering as it does one-sixth of the land surface of the globe. The War 
department, in its several divisions, has also a liberal display, 
including plans of the military prison at St. Petersburg, and of the corn 
granaries erected near Warsaw to be used as storehouses in case of siege. 
Then there are the uniforms and musical instruments of the various army 
corps, and books relating to the science of fortification and other 
branches of warfare. In charts are indicated the proportion of food 
elements in the daily ration of pupils of the military schools, and the 
stature of Moscow school children. The Pedagogic museum has models of the 
many ethnological types of which the population of the empire is composed, 

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with cabinets filled with minerals, skeletons, and mounted specimens of 
animals and birds. 

Austria has no educational exhibits, except for the models, school 
apparatus, and musical instruments, displayed by business firms. Italy has 
only a few educational publications and reports, and Belgium, a few plans 
and designs for school-houses, with a model of a school for basket-making, 
also from private firms. Denmark is represented by models, drawings, and 
implements from a Copenhagen society for encouraging manual labor in homes 
and schools and by a method of teaching drawing to feebleminded children. 
In Mexico's section, where are large transparencies of President and Mrs. 
Diaz, are fully illustrated the improvements in her school system during 
the present regime. Here also is an assortment of musical instruments, and 
a museum stocked with the birds and animals native to our sister republic. 
Japan has a large and exhaustive collection, one fully explaining the 
organization of her public schools as developed within recent years, 
largely on the American plan, and with the aid of American teachers. All 
the workings of that system are here on exposition, from the kindergarten 
and primary grades to the high school and the imperial university. There 
are also colleges of art, engineering, technology, and agriculture, with 
commercial schools, and schools for the blind and mute. From many of these 
are specimens of work and apparatus, with diagrams or models of buildings, 
records, reports, regulations, and statistics. From the pupils of the 
government schools are many samples of needlework; pen-drawings, crayons, 
and colored sketches; artificial fruits and flowers; native woods and 

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models in wood of buildings and bridges; decorated porcelains and other 
ceramic ware, and an entomological cabinet illustrating the insect life of 
Japan. 

Considered as one comprehensive display of what has and is being 
accomplished the world over in the cause of education, we have in these 
sections by far the most complete and interesting collection that has ever 
been gathered together. Here may be compared the systems of countries many 
thousands of miles apart, the systems developed under autocratic and 
republic rule, denominational systems with those of the state, all grouped 
within a few thousand square yards of space, and yet presenting a clearer 
illustration of methods, appliances, and results than could be obtained 
from an extended tour of the world. While the entire Exposition is of 
itself in the nature of an educational display, the strongest factors in 
that display are the groups which reproduce in miniature what the world 
has to show us in the art of teaching - an art, indeed, it may properly be 
termed, for the true pedagogue, like the poet, is born, not made. 

In the central section of the northern gallery is illustrated the entire 
domain of photography, with the reproduction of photographs and works of 
art, forming a collection which goes far to prove the oft repeated 
statement that no branch of art or science is becoming so rapidly 
perfected and popularized. Here are chambers filled with the most finished 
specimens of albertypes, aristotypes, steel engravings, wood-cuts, photo-
engravings, half-tones, and wash drawings, from the large clear photograph 
of a locomotive at full speed, caught by the instantaneous process, to the 
most delicate gems of workmanship. 

Except to the specialist, the display of surveying and engineering 
instruments, and of meteorological, optical, and astronomical apparatus is 
of no great interest; but in this connection is the most striking exhibit 
in all the department of Liberal Arts, in the form of an equatorial 
telescope, sixty-five feet in length, with a lens forty inches in 
diameter, and weighing, apart from its foundations, nearly seventy tons. 
In weight it is about fifty per cent and in power twenty-five percent 
greater than the Lick telescope at the Mount Hamilton observatory, the 
gift of a California millionaire to the cause of astronomical science, 

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and with this exception the largest in the world. Yet so delicate is he 
workmanship and so perfectly balanced the parts, that the tube and 
declination axis to which it is attached, weighing together 16,000 pounds, 
can be moved by the pressure of a forefinger. Built by the artificers of 
the Lick instrument for a wealthy and public-spirited citizen of Chicago, 
the Yerkes telescope, located near the northern end of Columbia Avenue, 
will find a permanent home in the Geneva observatory in connection with 
the University of Chicago. 

Beyond the galleries of photographs, engravings, and exhibits relating to 
the reproduction of color or form, are the collections of United States 
publishers, some of them so arranged as to display not only mechanical 
processes, but the original sketches of artists and manuscripts of authors 
whose works have won for them repute. Here one may read somewhat of the 
history of several of the great publishing houses of the United States. 
Thus in the pavilion of Harper and brothers is the first book published by 
that firm in 1817, a translation of Senaca's Morals, a worn and dust-brown 
volume, by the side of which is a recent edition of She Stops to Conquer, 
illustrated by Edwin A. Abbey, and the original manuscript of Ben-Hur. 

More pictures than books are exhibited by the Century company, and of 
special interest is its case of Lincoln relics, including his letter 
accepting the nomination for the presidency, the original draft of his 
proclamation of 1861, calling for 75,000 troops, the proof sheets of his 
inaugural address, with corrections and interpolations in his own 
handwriting, and his message to congress in 1865, proposing compensation 
to slave-holders, together with portions of his correspondence with 
Douglas, Grant, and Jefferson Davis. In this collection is the only letter 
which Jefferson Davis addressed to Lincoln in his official capacity as 
president of the Confederate States of America. There are also casts of 
Lincoln's hands, and a life mask of his features, the latter taken in 1860 
by a Chicago artist. In the pavilion of this company is illustrated its 
system of wood-engraving, and its typographic methods, the latter in a 
case containing proof-sheets and page-forms of the dictionary. An 
interesting feature is an article written by Kennan, the Siberian 
traveler, and mutilated by the Russian censor of the press. 

The Scribners have some rare first editions and many specimens of costly 
and elaborate bindings, the latter contrasting somewhat sharply with the 
faded yellow cover of a magazine in their collection, bearing the date of 
1787 - the first one published in the United States. There are many 
manuscripts of noted authors, some written with the pen and others with 
the typewriter, and more expressive than any words that Stanley could have 
sent are two arrows, tipped with poison, representing an episode in his 

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explorations of the dark continent. Houghton, Mifflin and company's 
pavilion is so arranged as to resemble a library, with the busts of 
authors appearing above their works. The Appletons' exhibit consists 
mainly of works of art, with a collection of reference books; by other 
firms juvenile literature is represented, and by a Chicago house are 
displayed some of the largest maps every made, one of them printed from a 
single plate. In a word, every department of American literature is here 
represented, together with certain branches of graphic and delineative 
art. 

Adjoining this section are exhibits which demonstrate the proselyting 
methods of the various religious associations. Through their publishing 
houses many of the churches present specimens of denominational 
literature, and kindred organizations explain by means of printed books, 
statistics, and diagrams, the workings of their systems and the growth of 
their orders. The American Bible society has an especially interesting 
collection, including such rare biblical editions as the King James of 
1611; a facsimile of the first page of the first bible every printed, the 
Mazarin, of 1450; a copy of the Biblia Pauperum, representing the style of 
printing from wooden blocks, and the Hexapla, showing side by side the 
Greek text and the six early versions of the scriptures. In the pavilion 
of this society one may examine copies of its special publications in 300 
different languages. 

Of the French exhibits on the gallery floor, in the department of Liberal 
Arts, forming as they do an integral portion and not a mere overflow of 
her display, mention has already been made. The other foreign powers 
represented are Great Britain and her dependencies of Canada and New South 
Wales, Germany, Austria, Italy, Russia, Mexico, and Japan, all of them in 
the western section of the gallery. Italy's pavilion is in the shape of 
the letter T, and over its double portal, fashioned in imitation of 
Carrara marble, on which are painted the royal arms, are suspended the 
national colors. In addition to such articles as are included in her main 
collection are Leghorn hats, gold-embroidered satins from Palermo, and 
armor from Sicily, with musical instruments from Venice, literature from 
Rome and Milan, and horological and other scientific instruments from all 
the chief municipalities, among them a clock which as its maker claims, 
illustrates the theory of perpetual motion. 

In the exhibits of other foreign powers are illustrated their reproductive 
art, their printing processes and their improvements in surgical, medical, 
and scientific apparatus. The English and German picture galleries have 
also choice collections of photographs and engravings, loaned by art 
societies, with contributions from private firms and publishing houses. 
Japan displays, in addition to her educational exhibits already described, 
a number of photographs representing her modern ordnance 

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and arsenal, with charts, tables, and other illustrations of her postal 
system. In the New South Wales section is revealed her progress in 
manufactures and in the functional departments of government, the former 
showing remarkable development since the days, not long gone by, when, 
apart from a few saw and grist-mills, a small woolen factory for the 
production of coarse blankets and tweeds embodied the entire manufacturing 
industries of a colony with more than 300,000 square miles of area. 

World's Fair Miscellany

The Yerkes telescope, mentioned in the text, was not placed in position 
until several weeks after the opening of the Fair. It was not until late 
in December of 1892 that the contract for making this instrument was 
assumed by the Cleveland firm of Warner & Swasey, and it was thought that 
at least a year would be required for the task, the magnitude and delicacy 
of which it is impossible to over-estimate. The telescope was put together 
at the Fair, as indeed it must be; for apart from the question of 
transportation, to place the tube in position on its supporting columns 
would have required an unobstructed space equal to that of a six-story 
building with sixty feet of frontage. 

Among the Russian exhibits in the Liberal Arts section is the Tolstoi book-
case of old oak of brownish hue, with panels in the form of pictures, the 
design of which is burned into the wood. In one of them Tolstoi is 
represented at work among the peasantry on his estate; in another, busied 
over his manuscript and books; in a third, at rest in his garden, and on a 
fourth is a replica of Repin's portrait of the great Russian author. The 
case is filled with his novels and philosophical treatises. 

In the American publishers' section are some interesting manuscripts in 
addition to such as are mentioned in the text, and of special interest to 
those who love to study the chirography of prominent authors. In backhand 
writing, but as plain as print, are pages from the pen of Thomas Bailey 
Aldrich, with the bold, dashing handwriting of Henry James, the angular, 
feminine handwriting of W. D. Howells, the last manuscript sheet of Frank 
R. Stockton's romance of The Lady or the Tiger, and some of the copy of 
Frances Hodgson Burnett's story, Little Lord Fauntleroy. Among other 
specimens are the manuscripts of Mark Twain, Bret Harte, R. H. Stoddard, 
and E. C. Stedman, with the letter from James Russell Lowell to Joel 
Benton, in which the former cleared himself from the imputation of 
lukewarm patriotism, caused by his English proclivities. Finally, there is 
in this section a historic collection of dictionaries, including the first 
one published in the English language, compiled by John Bullocker, and 
bearing the date of 1616; the second, issued in 1623, and written by Henry 
Cockeram. Thomas Blount's dictionary of the edition of 1670; Samuel 
Johnson's of 1755, and the Imperial dictionary which James Ogilvie 
published in 1847, many of the features of which are reproduced in the 
Century dictionary. 

Prominent among the Art school exhibits in the southern gallery is that of 
the Chicago Art Institute which, though one of the youngest, ranks among 
the foremost in the United States. Its efficiency is largely due to the 
ability and zeal of the instructors, among whom are such men as Frank 
Millet and Lorado Taft. The character of its exhibits is indicated in my 
description of the institute, in the chapter containing a brief historic 
sketch of Chicago. The collection from the Art students' league of New 
York is also a creditable display, representing, as it does, modern ideas 
and methods, 

Page 256

modeled largely on the French schools. Objection has been taken to the 
exhibits of the Pennsylvania academy, on the ground that they reveal too 
strongly the influence of French impressionists. Boston has sent some 
excellent studies, and there are small collections from the Minneapolis 
and Jacksonville schools. 

In the exhibits of the university of the city of New York is one of the 
first telegraphic messages that ever passed over the wires, forwarded by 
Samuel F. B. Morse on the 24th of January, 1838, and by him and his 
associates recorded in the university chapel. It reads as follows: 
"Attention. The universe my kingdom. Right wheel." The message was 
dictated by Professor Thomas S. Cummings, who afterward filled the chair 
of art, and on whom had just been conferred a general's commission. Hence 
the wording which, though it may have been sent in jest, was none the less 
prophetic. In this section are represented the several departments of the 
university, including its school of pedagogy, established at the request 
of teachers for higher instruction in that science. To Mrs. Benjamin 
Williamson, a member of that school, one of the advisory committee of the 
university, herself from the state of New Jersey, I am indebted for 
valuable information in this connection. 

From the university of Philadelphia comes a collection of fragments of 
Babylonian pottery, bricks, tablets, and ornaments gathered during an 
expedition sent forth in 1888 under the auspices of that institution. On 
some of them has been deciphered the signature of Assyrian kings, and on 
others are strange cuneiform inscriptions, throwing light on the history 
and customs of the people. From the ruins of the ancient city of Nippur is 
an assortment covering a period of more than 3,000 years. On a fragment of 
an axe is an inscription of which the following is a translation: "To Bel, 
his Lorn Nazi Meruttash Kuri Galzu has presented this axe of bright lapis 
lazuli, to hear his prayer, to grant his supplication, to accept his sigh, 
to preserve his life, to lengthen his days." 

Other universities and colleges have also many curiosities, only a few of 
which can here be described. Princeton, for instance, displays a large 
portrait of Washington, which for more than a century was not removed from 
its home in Nassau hall. The frame which contains it originally held a 
portrait of George II, and at the battle of Princeton the picture was 
destroyed by a cannon-ball, but the frame was left intact. Among other 
relics are a commencement programme of 1760, printed in Latin, and a 
number of old diplomas, one of them dated 1749, when the college was 
located at Newark, and signed by Aaron Burr, father of the vice-president. 

In addition to the catholic exhibit mentioned in the text, many of the 
leading protestant denominations are represented in the educational 
sections of the department of Liberal Arts, among them the presbyterians, 
episcopalians, methodist-episcopalians, and Christian brothers. 

An exhibit worthy of more than a passing glance is that of the Carlisle 
Indian school, in the east gallery of the Liberal Arts department. In 
addition to specimens of penmanship, map-drawing, etc., there is a 
collection of uniforms, underclothing, and fancy work in glass cases, all 
made by the pupils, and entirely by hand, as also was a large wagon, with 
harness and running gear for government use. 

Among the educational exhibits in the south gallery is one from the 
department of scientific temperance in connection with the Woman's 
Christian Temperance union. One of the purposes of this organization is to 
provide for hygienic instruction in the public schools, with special 
reference to the effects of alcoholic liquors and narcotics. 

For the testing of musical instruments provision was made by the 
department of Liberal Arts, first in an adjacent building at the north end 
of the peristyle, where is a recital hall with seating capacity for 500 
persons, and second in the spaces allotted to exhibitors, who were invited 
to appoint from their own number a committee to prepare a series of 
programmes, both for the recital hall and the musical sections of the 
Manufactures building. A necessary regulation was that during the time 
assigned to special exhibitors, other instruments in the vicinity were to 
be silent. 

South of the Fifty-seventh street, on Stony Island avenue, and adjacent to 
the Fair grounds, is the International Sunday School building, which is 
practically devoted to an exposition of the most effective methods of 
religious work among children, and may be classified in the department of 
Liberal Arts. Here are headquarters for the Sunday School workers of the 
United States and Canada. 



Page 257

Chapter the Eleventh:
Woman's Department

Among the features which distinguish the Columbian from all former 
international expositions are the scope and character of its Woman's 
department; and among the most pleasing exhibits of that department is the 
building which contains them. For the first time in World's Fair annals, 
as I have said, a special edifice has been devoted to the purposes of that 
department, or rather to a portion of its purposes, for, side by side, not 
only in the great temples of industry, but in state and foreign pavilions, 
are specimens of male and female workmanship. For the first time also has 
been designed by a woman a structure fashioned for such uses. 

In the plan of this building we have the result of a national competition, 
but of competition only among women, the choice being made from a large 
number of designs, not a few of which were of unquestionable merit. The 
successful candidate was Sophia G. Hayden, a graduate of the architectural 
school of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and in the evolution 
of her scheme she has presented a neat and artistic solution of one of the 
most difficult problems of the Fair. In this building must be contained, 
not only a general and retrospective display of woman's work, whether in 
our own or foreign lands, but space must be provided for the exhibits of 
charitable and reformatory organizations, for a library, and assembly-
room, for parlors, committee rooms, and administration and other purposes. 
All this must be accomplished in a space 400 feet long by half that width, 
adjacent to the Midway plaisance and the Horticultural Hall. 

Selected for its skill of detail no less than for its grace and harmony of 
design, this composition is the work of a professional architect, and not, 
as some would have us believe, of an architectural scholar; for if Miss 
Hayden was before unknown to the profession, she has here given proof that 
she is far above amateur rank. If in her design its feminine features are 
somewhat pronounces, that is as it should be. As one of her brother 
architects observes, "It is proper that such a building should take its 
place with the other architectural productions in Jackson Park, and it is 
eminently proper that the exposition of woman's work should be housed in a 
building in which a certain delicacy and elegance of general treatment, a 
smaller limit of dimension, a finer scale of detail, and a certain quality 
of sentiment, which might be designated in no derogatory sense as graceful 
timidity or gentleness, combined, however, with evident technical 
knowledge, at once differentiate it from its colossal neighbors, and 
reveal the sex of its author." 

In style the building is modelled after that of the Italian renaissance, 

Page 259

with the facades of the first story fashioned in the form of an Italian 
arcade, and surrounded with a portico, the roof of which serves as a 
balcony for the second story. The colonnade of the upper story is 
suggestive of the Corinthian order, and between the columns are windowed 
spaces, adapted to the comparatively small dimensions of the chambers 
within. The principal entrance is in the form of a triple arched pavilion, 
flanked by a surface of solid wall, with double pilasters, above it an 
open colonnade of the same design as those on either side, and with the 
pediment richly decorated in bas-relief. In front the corner pavilions are 
similarly treated, as also are the side entrances, but without pediments, 
and with rows of pilasters in place of colonnades. Over the side entrances 
is a third or attic story, opening at the main roof on gardens, around 
which is a screen of pilasters. From the central pavilion spacious 
stairways lead to a terrace a few feet above the water, where a landing is 
built on the northern arm of the lagoon. 

In the interior is a central hall opening into a rotunda, with decorated 
skylight, unencumbered by columns, and of sufficient altitude to admit the 
light from rows of clear-story windows. On both floors this open space is 
surrounded with open arcades, those on the upper story serving as 
galleries, and resembling somewhat the corridors of an Italian courtyard. 
The interior plan displays the most careful economy of space in providing 
for suites of connected apartments, differing in size but for the most 
part of almost domestic proportions, and with due regard to lighting, 
circulation, and communication. The appearance of the building is in 
harmony with the conditions from which its design was evolved, suggesting 
rather the lyric features of the Art Palace than the heroic aspect of the 
larger temples of industry and science, and with a grace of expression 
worthy of its uses and its artificer. 

For the decorative as for the structural scheme of the building designs 
were invited among women qualified for such work throughout the United 
States, and after eager and close competition the prize was awarded to 
Alice Rideout, of San Francisco, by whom were modelled the compositions on 
the main pediment and the symbolical groups of the roof-gardens. All the 
groups are more or less typical of the part that woman has played in the 
history of the world, of what has been, is, and will be her sphere of duty 
and influence. The mural paintings, with other ornamental features, as the 
carved wainscotings, screens, and balustrades, the tapestries and panels 
were also contributed by women, while from many of the states came offers 
of cabinet woods, marble and other materials in quantities larger than 
could be accepted, though to some was granted as a privilege the right of 
furnishing and decorating their own apartments and interior decorations. 

On the roof are winged groups typical of feminine characteristics and 
virtues, all in choices symbolism, one of the central figures representing 
the spirituality of woman, and at its feet a pelican, emblem of love and 
sacrifice. In the same group charity stands side by side with virtue, and 
sacrifice is further sumbolized by a nun, placing her jewels on the altar. 
In another group is the genius of civilization, with the bird of wisdom at 
her feet; on the right a student, and on the left a woman groping in 
intellectual darkness but struggling after light. These and others, 
together with the figures on the pediment, typical of literature and art, 
of charity, beneficence, and home are from the hand of the San Francisco 
sculptress. On the frieze is a figure of youth, and on the panels of the 
entrance-ways are represented the occupations of women. 

Page 261

To Mrs. Candace Wheeler, of New York, was given the superintendent of the 
interior decorations, the most noteworthy of which are the paintings at 
either end of the rotunda, where is the court of honor. On the north 
tympanum, under the name of Bertha H. Palmer, primitive woman is depicted 
by Mrs. Frederick MacMonnies, of St. Louis, the central figure 
representing motherhood, with women on either side sowing seed and 
carrying jars of water. Upon the opposite tympanum is modern woman, 
beneath the name of Sophia G. Hayden, typified by a group of young girls 
in pursuit of a figure of fame, which is disappearing in the distant blue 
of the heavens. A broad frieze surrounds the gallery, and between its 
arches are inscribed on the intervening panels the names of women whom the 
world has honored, from Rebecca and Ruth to the celebrities of the present 
day. 

From the corridors which surround the court, on the second floor, open the 
various parlors, exhibition rooms, and assembly chambers. The northern end 
of the main hall is decorated in gold and white, its windows of stained 
glass adding to the effect. The central window was furnished by 
Massachusetts, and symbolizes 

Page 262

the part which that commonwealth has played in the advancement of woman. 
It is flanked by two smaller ones, presented by the women of Chelsea and 
Boston. The walls are covered with portraits of some of the more prominent 
personages in the cause of education, reform, and philanthropy. A large 
space is occupied by a picture of Burdett-Coutts, with models of some of 
her institutions, and other illustrations of her labors. The figure of 
Fredericka Bremer is the most prominent in the Swedish gallery. France, 
Norway, and the United States have also their niches of fame filled by 
such owmen as Lucretia Mott and Harriet Beecher Stowe. 

The Connecticut chamber and the woman's library open from the western 
corridors. In the decorations of the library is a subtle combination of 
colors, the ceiling, painted by Dora Wheeler Keith, daughter of Mrs. 
Candace Wheeler, resembling the frescoes of some old Venetian palace, 
although the symbolic treatment is appropriate to the purpose. In the 
central oval, enclosed by a wreath of white lilies, literature is typified 
by a shapely woman, science by a man in scholastic garb, and imagination 
by an angel with its outstretched wings. Between this oval and the 
Venetian border which encloses the ceiling, are loops and folds of drapery 
in softly blended hues representing the tints of sky and landscape, and at 
the four corners are medallions symbolic of history, romance, poetry, and 
drama. 

Page 263

The small but tastefully furnished and decorated parlor occupied by the 
women of Connecticut is hung with pictures from the hands of the daughters 
of that state, and in addition to its other purposes serves as a reception 
room for the commissioners of foreign countries. Into the eastern corridor 
open the reception rooms occupied by the state boards, and by the women of 
California, Ohio, and Kentucky. Though intended for residents of those 
states, the parlors are open to the public, as examples of decorative art. 
The California department has been called the cactus room, from the fact 
that its coloring and decorative scheme are largely in imitation of that 
plant. Mrs. Frona Eunice Wait, the commissioner from California, was the 
originator of the idea, and carried on the actual work. A pleasing effect 
is produced by the grayish green of the cactus, as seen in the glass 
windows and draperies, and the warm, rich hues of the polished redwood 
floor, the panelled ceiling and walls. The furniture of native woods is 
ornamented with similar designs, as are the carvings on the panel frames 
of ceiling and walls. On one side is a large mirror, and above it a panel 
of redwood, upon which is the shield of the state elaborately carved. The 
floor is partially covered by the skin of a grizzly bear from Humboldt 
county, and on the panels of the walls are pictures by prominent 
California artists, representing the flora of the state, and such scenes 
as the old San Francisco mission, the Cliff house, Mount Hamilton, Lake 
Tahoe, and Mount Shasta. Busts of native Californians are placed on 
pedestals of native onyx and marble; some of the draperies are of home-
made silk, and there are vases fashioned by members of the Ceramic club of 
San Francisco, with other specimens representing the arts and industries 
of the golden state. 

The largest of the suite is Cincinnati's parlor, the decoration of which 
was in charge of Agnes Pitman, of that city, daughter of Benjamin Pitman, 
who for years has been identified with its academy of design. Under the 
direction of her father Miss Pitman carved the first table thus decorated 
by a woman in Cincinnati, and here exhibited as a curiosity. Wood-carving 
is now a popular branch of industrial art among her women, and beautiful 
specimens of their handiwork are to be seen in the ceiling and in the 
furniture of the apartment. Around it is a frieze of floral design, 
shading from a pale cream color to a dark brown tint, and beneath the 
frieze is a border of buckeye leaves and blossoms, with tasteful mural 
designes. In a case near the centre of the room are speciments of Rookwood 
and other pottery from the women of Cincinnati. Over the door is a group 
named The Jury, representing in ceramic work a cluster of owls; and among 
the statuary may be mentioned a marble 

Page 264

figure of Ariadne, and a statuette of Evangeline in terra cotta. 

Kentucky's room is called the colonial parlor, its ceiling divided by 
massive beams, the supporting columns of which are entwined with sprays of 
wild roses. The mirrored windows and the old fashioned fireplace are in 
keeping with the general design, the brass andirons being loaned by a 
member of the family of Cassius M. Clay. By other old and prominent 
families was contributed most of the antique furniture including a sofa 
which was the property of President Tyler, and a chair used by Elder 
Brewster, of Plymouth colony, more than three centuries ago. There are 
portraits of comely women on these walls of white and gold, and there is 
statuary by the artificer of the caryatides on the Woman's building, with 
tasteful specimens of ceramic work. 

In the extreme southeast corner of the second floor, near the so-called 
organization room, is the office of the president, Mrs. Potter Palmer, 
commonly termed the fish-net room, with seines festooned from the 
ceilings, a casting net forming a canopy over the president's desk, and 
figures representing women engaged in making eel pots, nets, baskets, and 
other articles connected with the fisheries. For this collection there was 
no place in the Fisheries or other buildings, and here through the efforts 
of the president and lady commissioners, and of delegates from several of 
the states was found for it a suitable home with adequate representation. 
Among the decorations is a water-color painting of New Jersey's seacoast 
birds by Hardenburg with designs in fish-scales, and specimens from women 
taxidermists. By Mrs. Williamson, secretary of the State Charities Aid 
association of New Jersey, and a member of the school of pedagogy in 
connection with the university of New York, was originated the decorative 
scheme of this chamber, and to her is largely due its unique and tasteful 
equipment. 

The women of New Jersey supplied the antique colonial furniture, including 
tables, chairs, sofas, and a piano in use as early as 1750, some of them 
valuable relics of the colonial and earlier republican eras contributed by 
the oldest familes of Salem county, New Jersey. Of such relics, in which 
the county is exceptionally rich, there are catalogues in the president's 
office prepared at the request of the Board of Lady Managers by Miss Anna 
Hunter Van Meter, chairman of the county committee on antiques. 

Opening on the eastern corridor is the chamber set apart for the 
headquarters of the several state boards, with its dainty screens, 
embroideries, and mural decorations 

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from the hands of female artists of Kyoto, Japan. Special features are the 
ornamentations of the ceiling, with paintings on silk, and the panels 
fashioned of bamboo frames. Diagonally opposite the president's room is 
the model kitchen and the audience hall, the latter also festooned with 
netting. A placard on the wall announces that in the manufacture of this 
netting ninety per cent of the work was accomplished by women. 

The 1st of May, the opening day of the Columbian Exposition, was also the 
time appointed for the dedication of the Woman's edifice, though the 
latter was completed long before that date, and as I have said was the 
first one finished of all the department buildings. The ceremonies were 
held in the court of honor, the hall of the rotunda; at two o'clock the 
doors were opened, and a few minutes later every chair was occupied, with 
many hundreds crowding the passage ways, and many thousands who could find 
neithe seats nor standing room. On the platform, in front of which the 
Spanish colors, flanked by those of other powers, drooped from the gallery 
overhead, were the Lady Managers and their invited guests, among whom the 
presence of some of the most prominent women of the time, including Lady 
Aberdeen, the duchess of Sutherland, the countess of Craven, the duchess 
of Veragua, the Russian princess Schalovsky, and the Swedish baroness 
Thomburg-Rappe, with a goodly representation from our own and other lands, 
attested the world wide interest in the Woman's department. 

By way of overture was rendered the grand march of Jean Ingeberg von 
Bronsart, followed by prayer from Miss Ida Hultin, after which came 
another musical number, composed by the English musician, Frances 
Ellicott. Then to the front of the platform stepped the daughter of 
Professor Wilkinson, of the University of Chicago, by whom was written and 
read the dedication ode, its theme a tribute to Isabella of Spain, less as 
a sovereign than as a woman, and with eloquent lines descriptive of the 
part which she played in the Columbian episode. The dedicatory address was 
delivered by Mrs. Potter Palmer, whose impressive description of the 
sphere, rights, and duties of women 

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concluded with a graceful acknowledgement of the kindly and earnest 
cooperation of foreign nations. Then shorter addresses, with greetings, 
were offered by foreign participants, Italy being represented by Madame 
Marietta; Great Britain by Lady Aberdeen and the well-known 
philanthropist, Mrs. Fenwick Bedford; Germany by a lady professor who 
repeated the words of her empress, and Russia by the princess Schalovsky, 
who begged that in thought at least her countrywomen might clasp hands 
with their American sisters. The ceremonies ended with the gift of the 
women of Montana, which, when driven home into the place prepared for it, 
gave the finishing touch to the building. Finally the tones of the 
benediction proclaimed the opening of a department planned and created by 
woman's effort, and filled with woman's work. 

As with the Woman's building so with the exhibits by women, they form of 
themselves a unique and distinctive feature of the Exposition, such as 
never before was presented to the world, such as never before was 
attempted. Not as at the 

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international fairs held in London, in Paris, and Vienna, have these 
collective specimens of woman's industry and art been cast into such nooks 
and corners as might be spared by the several departments. For the first 
time they were housed in a home of their own, in one of the most beautiful 
homes among all these palatial groups, or in the larger buildings were 
arrayed in open competition with the workmanship of men. At the 
Philadelphia Exposition, it is true, and also at the Cotton Centenary 
Exposition held a few years later at New Orleans, there were comprehensive 
exhibits of woman's work that more than merited the attention they 
received; but here we have not a mere adjunct of the Fair but an integral 
and most interesting portion of it, one recognized by the national 
legislature, approved by the commission constituted by that legislature, 
and with the earnest and cordial support, not only of our own but of 
European nations, whose titled dames, even those of royal blood, did not 
disdain to serve on committees acting in cooperation with the Board of 
Lady Managers. 

In the act of congress which gave to the Fair the sanction of our 
government, the National Commission was instructed, as we have seen, to 
appoint and prescribe the duties of this board, whose functions and 
operations have been partially described in connection with Exposition 
management. Among those functions was the selection of "one or more 
members of all committess authorized to award prizes for exhibits which 
may be produced in whole or in part by female labor." Thus was conceded to 
woman, not as a favor, but as a right, such representation in the control 
of affairs as enabled the board to present to us, in all its symmetry of 
design and perfection of detail, their Woman's department. Here was in 
truth a most proper, a most significant concession, and as the president 
of the board has well remarked, "Even more important than the discovery of 
Columbus was the fact that the general government has discovered woman." 

To the more thoughtful class of visitors one of the most interesting 
exhibites contained in the Woman's building is that which represents in 
the form of a retrospective collection, from prehistoric eras to the age 
in which we live, the contributions made by women to the huge workshop of 
which this world so largely consists, their contributions not only to the 
industries of the world but to its sciences and arts. Thus it is hoped in 
a measure to dispel the prejudices and misconceptions, to remove the 
vexatious restrictions and limitations which for centuries have held 
enthralled the sex. 

In their preliminary announcement, the managers thus outline the purpose 
of these exhibits: "It will be shown that women, among all the primitive 
peoples, were the originators of most of the industrial arts, and that it 
was not until these became lucrative that they were appropriated by men, 
and women pushed aside. While man, the protector, was engaged in fighting 
or the chase, woman constructed the rude semblance of a home. She dressed 
and cooked the game, and later ground the grain between the stones, and 
prepared it for bread. She cured and dressed the skins of animals, and 
fashioned them awkwardly into garments. Impelled by the necessity for its 
use, she invented the needle, and twisted the fibres of plants into 
thread. She invented the shuttle, and used it in weaving textile fabrics, 
in which were often mingled feathers, wool, and down which contributed to 
the beauty and warmth of the fabric. She was the first potter, and molded 
clay into jars and other utensils for domestic purposes, 

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drying them in the sun. She originated basket-making, and invented such an 
infinite variety of beautiful forms and decorations as put to shame modern 
products. She learned to ornament these articles of primitive construction 
by weaving in feathers of birds, by a very skillful embroidery of 
porcupine quills and vegetable fibres, and by the use of vegetable dyes. 
Especial attention will be called to these early inventions of women by 
means of an ethnological display to be made in the Woman's building, which 
will supplement the race exhibit to be made in the department of 
Ethnology." 

To present, in some branches of manufacture, an entirely distinct 
collection of woman's work, would have been an impossible task, for who 
shall tell, for instance, in a piece of cloth, what part of the weft was 
woven by men and what by women, who may have worked side by side in 
fashioning the completed fabric? But, as I have said, in the Woman's 
department the decorations and exhibits of whatever kind are the work of 
woman's hands. As originally planned the building was to be used only for 
administrative purposes and assembly-rooms; but although feminine 
industries were largely represented in all the departments, as the work of 
organization progressed it became evident that many would be entirely 
excluded were not additional space provided. Thus it was that the Woman's 
building was so largely devoted to exposition purposes. 

As to the distribution of woman's work in other departments of the 
Exposition, Mrs. Palmer remarks: "In the department of charities and 
corrections, for instance, and also hospitals, many of the most important 
exhibits are from women, and we have gladly relinquished them in out 
building in order that they might be well represented in the Liberal Arts 
department. 

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In the Fine Arts building also many of the best pictures by women are 
shown, as the space we could give them was extremely limited. In the 
department of Transportation twelve percent of the exhibits are by women. 
In Horticulture forty-six percent, and in Fisheries twenty-six percent. We 
have also a fine showing in the department of Ethnology, and, it is uselss 
to add, in the department of Manufactures, where woman's work would 
naturally appear to great advantage." 

Passing through the main eastern portal, the visitor enters a large 
vestibule decorated by English artists. Philanthropy is represented in the 
person of Florence Nightingale ministering to sick and wounded patients in 
her hospital. On either side of her figure are symbolic paintings, and on 
the opposite wall is a central group typical of artistic needle-work. 

Turning to the left we enter the suite of rooms, containing the 
ethnological groups and those which demonstrate the practical ingenuity of 
woman. The collection from the Smithsonian Institution is at the entrance 
to this section, and is mainly illustrative of woman's work among the 
native races of the western continents. In a gallery of portraits are 
shown the various types of Indian women in North and South America. There 
are cases filled with costumes, needle-work, utensils, bodkins, tools, 
baskets, pottery, netting, and the like. There are primitive shuttles, 
distaffs, and looms, made of reeds and rough wood, samples of skins 
dressed by Eskimo and other Indians, tapa cloth from Polynesia, matting 
from Africa, and blankets from the Navajos of the Southwest. 

In one of the landings on the southwestern staircase, the work of 
manufacture is shown in actual operation, in a booth fashioned of the 
products of a loom manipulated by a Navajo woman of Colorado. 

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In the exhibit of the Smithsonian Institute one of the most remarkable 
evidences of skill among semi-savage women is also from Navajo looms, and 
some of the basket-work made by North American Indians is so closely woven 
that it will hold water. Montana and Utah have special displays, Skull 
valley being the locality represented in the latter territory. Among the 
Smithsonian specimens illustrative of woman's work is the exhibit of laces 
and kindred fabrics, including a thousand samples, so arranged as to 
represent different periods of manufacture. Those selected prior to 1550 
are merely knotted net, darned, and cut work. Then come point, bobbin, 
Venetian, Milanese, Genoese, and Flemish laces, with those peculiar to 
France and England, all the schools being represented in this assortment, 
which was loaned by Thomas Wilson, of the national museum. 

By Mrs. French-Sheldon, who travelled through eastern Africa at the head 
of a large caravan, unattended by any of her sex, were placed in the 
ethnological section many curious collected during her expedition. Among 
them are spears, great and small; knives finely tempered in charcoal 
fires; beads of brass, copper, and iron, and various utensils made of 
gourds, traced with heated wires in Persian and Arabesque designs. The 
last are copied mainly from articles obtained at the bazaars held by the 
Arabs of the coast. There are also curios presented to Mrs. French-Sheldon 
by Frederick Taylor, of New York, procured while travelling in Madagascar; 
including colored silks, the while caps of the Hova soldiery, and other 
samples from the more intelligent portion of the population. From the 
warlike Sakalavas, a tribe of fierce and swarthy savages living apart from 
settled communities, were procured two of their hideous war-masks, made of 
perforated terra cotta, fastened with fibres of the palm, and to which are 
appended long beards of goats' hair. 

From the ethnological section we enter an apartment which contains the 
inventions and patents of women; and here is sufficient evidence that 
aside from purely feminine industries women are applying themselves to 
pursuits of practical utility. among their inventions are weaving and 
washing machines, refrigerators, runaway horses from vehicles, with patent 
surgical bandages, hot-water appliances and sanitary dinner pails and 
filters; all these in addition to a choice display of needle-work, ceramic 
ware, paintings and statuary, engravings, etchings, and photographs. Near 
the entrance to the educational section, north of the vestibule, is a 
large picture representing the wreck of a ship and the rescue of her crew, 
while a portion of the wall beyond is covered with charts, testimonials, 
patent papers, and other evidences of the general adoption of the signal 
system invented by Mrs. Martha J. Coston more than thirty years ago. This 
is the only system of night signals recognized by the United States 
government and the British board of trade, adopted also in part by France, 
Italy, Denmark, Holland, and Brazil. There is probably no prominent 
steamship line, or life-saving station in the world which is not familiar 
with this patented invention of a woman. In the exhibits of the 
educational department are illustrated the methods of woman's training, 
physically, industrially, and intellectually. New York sends an array of 
architectural drawings, and designs for carpets, book covers, wall-paper, 
oil-cloth and printed textiles, the bulk of the contributions coming from 
the school of Applied Designs for Women, the school of Industrial Art, and 

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the Pratt Institute. Physical culture is represented by the Bryn Mawr 
school, of Baltimore, and there are many individual proofs of efficiency 
in the field of professional work. From Turkey comes a small collection of 
drawings, needle-work, and other evidences of female industry, from the 
American school for girls, at Scutari. The medical profession is 
represented by the Pennsylvania college for women, at Philadelphia, and 
nursing, as a profession for women, by the New York and Brooklyn training 
schools, and the Philadelphia hospital for nurses. 

Adjoining the educational section is one in which are traced the processes 
in several branches of female industry, the exhibits being of a somewhat 
miscellaneous character. At the entrance is typified, in the form of a 
large Pennsylvania sheep, the shearing industry, in which thousands of 
women are employed. A case filled with raw silks and silken fabrics 
represents the work of Utah women, and their many sisters, throughout the 
states, engaged in the raising of cocoons. Elsewhere are portable kilns, 
patented by women, with various articles of pottery; and from the women of 
Iceland is a display of hand spun and knit woolen goods, hosiery, and 
gloves. 

Entering the rotunda, or court of honor, the visitor sees on one side a 
bust sculptured by Sara Bernhardt, and on the other the reproduced 
fragment of an old Italian statue, while on the walls are pictures 
representing the best work of women in all the national schools. The body 
of the hall is filled with long lines of cases containing choice specimens 
of needle-work and ivory painting. Around the central fountain, with its 
border of aquatic plants, is a cluster of statuary, consisting of figures 
of Psyche and Maud Muller, and busts of C. B. Winslow, Susan B. Anthony, 
and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, with a group allegorical of the west by Vinnie 
Ream Hoxie, of New York, one of the pioneers among female sculptors. Near 
the western vestibule is also her statue of America, and this section if 
further beautified by several mural paintings of French artists, and by a 
bronze statue of 

Page 274

Leif Erikson, by Anne Whitney, the Boston sculptress. One one of the walls 
of the northern corridor is a shield of polished copper, and across its 
face a silver bow, with string of golden wire, and in raised silver 
letters the inscription, Silver Bow county, Montana. The shield is 
surrounded by a border of gold, silver, and copper, with designs of the 
state flower, the bitter root. Silver nails fasten the bow to the shield, 
which is adorned with Montana rubies and sapphires, and with medallions of 
copper and silver in low relief, representing various mining scenes. 

Spain, France, and Germany cover the eastern walls with paintings by 
prominent female artists, among which may be mentioned the two French 
canvases named The Bath, and Jean and Jacques, both showing quaint and 
tender touches of child life; and The Wandering Jew, a powerful work by a 
German painter. Below is arranged a choice display of decorated fans, 
miniatures, and other articles of virtu. British-Indian and Bohemian 
fabrics may also be examined in a series of cases which cover a large 
portion of the ground floor, and many ingenious specimens of needle-work 
from the Bohemian Industrial museum, represent her earlier periods of 
national industry, under the title of Our Mothers' Work. A large area in 
the northern portion of the hall is occupied by the Danish exhibits, the 
location of which is indicated by figures of peasant women attired in 
national costume. The cases are filled with paintings, fine needle-work, 
laces, specimens of ancient silver work, and antique spinning-wheels. In 
one of them are the laces of Denmark, with roses painted by the queen, 
fruit by the Princess Waldemar, and from the princess royal a collection 
of laces and handkerchiefs. Italian, Austrian, English, United States and 
Mexican works occupy sections of the western walls of the rotunda, one of 
the largest and strongest paintings in this portion of the court being 
that which represents, in the British division, Eurydice sinking into 
Hades. The industrial arts find expression in the cases ranged along the 
hall, toward the south, containing, among other samples, the laces of 
Russia and Austria, and specimens of elaborate needle-work from the 
nunneries of Mexico. Among other objects of interest is the table 
presented by the women of New Mexico, and designed to show the mineral 
resources and filigree silver industry of Santa Fe and the mining district 
adjacent. On its face is a gold medallion of the territorial seal, with 
historic buildings reproduced in silver repousse. The gold, silver, and 
copper, the turquoises, garnets, agates, and petrified woods of which the 
table is largely constructed are all of local production. 

The south wing of the building and the western half of the north wing are 
substantially occupied by exhibits from 

Page 275

foreign countries. Great Britain, with her dependencies, filling the 
largest area. The embroideries, tapestries, and other articles contributed 
by the royal school of art needle-work comprise many beautiful specimens 
of feminine skill, not a few of which are from the princess of Wales and 
her daughters. From the future queen-consort comes a chair, with carved 
frame of stained walnut, and seat of ornate leather work; the princess 
Louise sends a delicate sofa cushion of white silk embroidered with 
primroses, and Maud and Victoria, piano-stools ornamented with their work 
in the form of dahlias, while from Queen Victoria is a rich tapestry, 
whose central figure represents Pomona, wrought in colors which blend like 
those of ripe fruit. Among the screens noticeable for their beauty is a 
Louis Quinze, panelled with satin, and decorated with blue bows and sprays 
of flowers. In the piano-covers, bed-spreads, cushions, fans, vellu book-
bindings, laces, wood-carvings, and ceramic wares are illustrated the many 
industrial pursuits of English women, and especially such as are fostered 
by the societies which have their headquarters at the Kensington museum. 

But the most striking exhibits in the British section are those that 
pertain to education. Here Girton and Newnham colleges, Cambridge, Lady 
Margaret and Somerville halls, Oxfor, the Cheltenham Ladies' college, 
Queen's college, Belfast, Alexandria college, Dublin, Queen Margaret's 
college, Glasgow; all these and other in Great Britain for the higher 
education of women, are represented in a collection of photographs and 
reports. There is also a small gallery of the portraits of children, and 
appended to this collection of comely, fresh looking faces is the motto, 
Non angli sed angeli. The department of philanthropy is in charge of the 
baroness Burdett-Coutts, and illustrating certain phases of charitable 
work in England are models of a children's holiday home, a creche 
connected with the Ragged School union, and a cabmen's shelter decorated 
by the London Flower Girls' mission. 

The women of Ireland, Scotland, and Wales have organized separate 
exhibits. Very homelike seem the knitted underwear and bed-spreads made by 
the people of Wales, and quaint are the living and wax figures of Welsh 
spinners 

Page 276

in their tall sugar-loaf hats, such as are treasured as family heirlooms 
and barely considered respectable until worn on Sundays and feast days by 
the women of several generations. From Scotland the women of Argyle send 
tartan hose, and those of Aberdeen socks, gloves, and stockings, with 
embroideries designed in Turkish patterns. Among antiquarian treasures is 
the embroidered coverlet from the bed of Patrick, earl of Kinghorn, said 
to have been worked in 1606, and loaned by the countess of Strathmore, 
with a portiere from Lady Aberdeen, made in 1740 by the countess Anne. 
From another contributor to the historic interest of the Scottish exhibit 
are antique laces, curtains, embroideries, draperies, and screens, 
characteristic of various periods in the country's history. The oldest is 
a portion of a hanging in green velvet, embroidered with raised needle-
work, a style popular in Scotland during the later dynasty of the Stuarts. 
Another interesting specimen is in the form of an Arab frieze, fashioned 
of pieces of cloth, leather, and tinsel, sewed upon a background of plush, 
the figures, thus formed in relief, representing Arab chieftains and 
Bedouins of the desert - men, women, and children. This also is the 
handiwork of a woman who learned the secret of the art while travelling in 
Eqypt. 

In conjunction with the Industries association, Ireland has a neat exhibit 
of laces and embroidered church vestments. Among the latter are a robe 
ornamented with an old Celtic cross, worked by the nuns of Kenmare, and an 
elaborate floral design, in many colored silks, contributed by the royal 
shool of Art Embroidery. New South Wales and Canada have also unique 
displays of woman's work, the former sending us, among other articles, a 
cow and calf modelled in wax, and covered with natural hair. 

The Russian exhibits, adjoining those of Great Britain on the east, are 
under the immediate direction of the grand duchess Elizabeth, of Moscow, 
sister-in-law to the czar. They include a large display of laces and 
embroideries, with several collections designed to show the progress of 
Russian women in the practice of medicine and surgery, especially in 
relation to hospital service. The wives of governor generals throughout 
the entire empire aided in furnishing a complete representation of woman's 
work in Russia. Thus from the valley of the Amoor and the northern arm of 
the Volga, and from all the vast stretch of territory between Russian 
Poland and eastern Siberia, came specimens of female handicraft. Of 
excellent quality are the samples from the province of Kazan, including 
rich embroideries in silk, silver, and gold, on a groundwork of satin, 
linen, and leather. The native dress of peasant girls, and the court 
costumes characteristics of imperial dynasties, 

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are illustrated by models suitably attired. One of the dresses is said to 
have been worn by a member of the court during the reign of Ivan the 
Terrible, three centuries ago. There is also reproduced a convent door in 
Moscow, with its multitude of gilded figures, the groundwork of turquoise, 
and in the centre a curtain of olive-colored velvet on which are designs 
in antique lace. 

In one of the cases in this vicinity is represented a work of philanthropy 
undertaken by English women at the time of the Russo-Turkish war of 1877. 
During that war many Turkish women flocked into Constantinople, and 
hearing of their destitute condition, Lady Layard, wife of the British 
ambassador, and Baroness Burdett-Coutts established a fund for their 
relief. As the sufferers were experts in oriental needle-work, possessed 
of many secrets in construction and design that were a revelation to their 
patrons, they were encouraged in these industries. The various colors 
which they were accustomed to weave into their fabrics, and the simple 
designs with which they adorned them, were modified and elaborated by the 
methods of modern schools. Hence, while the exhibit known as that of the 
Turkish Compassion Fund contains many samples of embroideries, cushions, 
silks, and shawls, it has also speciments of elaborate ball dresses, 
draperies, scarfs, and other articles of personal and domestic use and 
ornament. The proceeds from the sale of goods go toward the support of 
those employed, and for the care of the sick, supplying the needs of more 
than 2,000 Mohammedan women. 

In the eastern portion of the north wing are the exhibits of the United 
States, or as announced over the entrance, an exposition of the applied 
arts of America. Here nearly every state in the republic displays its most 
artistic needle-work, its costumes, ceramic wares, mosaics, and other 
specimens of industry, largely contributed by societies of national 
repute. The associated artistis of New York have a choice exhibit of 
embroideries and tapestries, and among the costumes shown in this section 
is the dress worn by the late Mrs. Benjamin Harrison at the inauguration 
of her husband as president of the United States. 

West of the court of honor, adjoining the vestibule, are the telephone 
office, information bureau, and the exhibits which illustrate the 
scientific education and attainment of women. Among them are many 
collections of minerals, fossils, and botanical specimens, gathered by 
women from all parts of the world. Woman's work in the surveyor-general's 
office finds expression in a series of maps and drawings, and 
Massachusetts, through the Prang Normal classes and various societies for 
the encouragement of home studies, illustrates certain phases in the 
scientific education of women. Here also is a case containing scientific 
works, including the Notes on the Satellites of Saturn by Maria Mitchell, 
late professor of astronomy at Vassar college. 

Opposite the Russian section is a reproduction in miniature of the Sioux 
City corn palace, which may also be seen in other forms elsewhere in the 
Exposition. The one in the Woman's building was designed by Mrs. William 
I. Buchanan, wife of the chief of the Agricultural department, and the 
model is the handiwork of the ladies of Sioux City. The paintings of 
flowers and fruits which appear to decorate the interior are in reality 
composed of kernesl of corn and seeds of different colors, and the 
frescoes of the ceiling, of pampas 

Page 278

grass and millet seeds, while in the construction of the large picture 
known as The Water Carrier, the native grasses and grains are used. 

In the main hall-way of the northern wing, opposite the exhibit of the 
Turkish Compassion Fund, is a case containing quaint, doll-like dummies 
attired in female costumes. This is a loan collection by New York women, 
the figures portraying women representative of American history, from the 
early Spanish to the present times. Among them is a St. Augustine beauty 
in full skirt and lace mantilla; then a colonial maiden, a miss of New 
Amsterdam, a New England dame, a Puritan and a quakeress, a New York woman 
elegantly attired in silks and furs, a matron of revolutionary times, a 
balloon-like figure of the era of the civil war, and the fashionable dames 
and damsels of the present day. 

In the south wing, the Spanish pavilion occupies the post of honor, in the 
centre of other foreign exhibits, the collection illustrating many of the 
activities of women in the line of art industry, whether residents of 
Spain or Spanish -American countries. The display of woman's handicraft 
embraces speciments of needle-work, knitting, crochet-work, lace-making by 
hand and loom, plain and colored embroideries, tapestry, embossing, fine 
and coarse domestic cloths, and other textile fabrics peculiar to each 
section of the country, so arranged as to form a historic collection, this 
idea forming the motif of the design. The work of women is further 
illustrated by articles suggestive of their labors in the government 
tobacco factories, and in the culture of silk. Many of the choicest 
samples are from industrial institutions under government auspices, and 
from those established for the education of the deaf and dumb. 

Separated from the Spanish section by the Japanese division is the 
pavilion of Italy, the royal laces of the house of Savoy, never before 
displayed in foreign lands, forming the nucleus of the exhibits. For their 
safe keeping and return a bond was required from the government of the 
United States, and then by their owner, Queen Marguerite, they were placed 
in charge of a detachment of royal marines, with the countess di Brazza 
specially instructed to see them safely housed within the pavilion; for 
these are heirlooms descended through many generations, some of them 
articles the secret of whose manufacture is known only to the royal 
household, and other samples of varieties which the queen is introducing 
among the women of Italy, reviving an industrial art that was well nigh 
lost. The pavilion is furnished in the style of the fifteenth century, the 
furniture and the iron gate at the entrance, of delicate lace-like 
workmanship, being made in Venice. Within the court is a lay figure, 

Page 279

engaged in making lace, with choice specimens of bridal veils, of Burano, 
Genoese point, and Sicilian and Venetian laces. Of all the queen's 
treasures there are none more highly prized than the bed-spread under 
which Victor Emanuel was born. Finally the collection serves as samples of 
the work which is now being done by the poorer classes of the kingdom, and 
many of the pieces on exhibition are from those who receive instruction at 
the schools of Burano, of which the queen is president. Much valuable 
information was collected by the Italian commission as to the ancient 
history of textile arts, and especially of lace-making, all of which is 
conveyed in the form o books and photographs. 

Japan presents in her two chambers a dainty picture of the industrial and 
domestic occupations of her women, one representing the boudoir of a lady 
of high rank, and the other a library. In the former are all the articles 
of toilet used by the wives of the daimios, or feudal lords of olden 
times, specially prepared for the purpose. In the library is a collection 
of miscellaneous articles, including stringed instruments, mats, screens, 
banners, a case of books, a writing table, and other appropriate 
furnishings. There are also oil-paintings, pictures in relief, carvings in 
ivory, cocoons, raw silk, embroideries, crinkled textures and crapes, hand-
woven tapestries, laces, cloissonne, enamel-work, china-ware, lacquer work 
and artificial flowers. The empress, the empress-dowager, and the princess 
Mori all took an active part in the organization of the Japanese exhibit. 
By the first were contribued choice specimens of raw silk; by the second, 
fabrics woven in her own palace, while the princess, as president of the 
Japanese commission, also gave her cordial support. 

To the French section in all its completeness, Parisian milliners and 
glove makers contributed their daintiest conceptions. D'Alencon, 
Chantilly, and French point-laces fill several cases, and there are 
complete trousseaus for matrons, young girls, and infants, with 
handkerchiefs, fans, and parasols such as only the French can make. For 
the display of several elegant costumes by a Parisian house is provided a 
model drawing-room, in which a tea-party is in progress. The walls are 
covered with tapestry, and at the table of antique design presides the 
hostess, attired in a gown of brocaded satin trimmed with lace. The 
evolution of the art of dress is represented in a large glass case filled 
with dolls, or other miniature reproductions of famous women: St. 
Clotilde, wife of Clovis; the royal dames of Francis I and Henry IV; the 
Mdici, Marie Antoinette, and many other historic characters are here 
represented with singular fidelity, the details of dress being copied from 
portraits of the originals. 

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Between the French and Spanish sections are those of Mexico, Norway, 
Sweden, Siam, and the cape of Good Hope. The rich specimens of needle-
work, in gold and silver, from the women of Siam, with many other samples, 
appear almost side by side with the industrial products of the peasantry 
and societies of Sweden. In the shape of a church window is a beautiful 
speciment of stained glass, the Swedish saint, Bridget, forming the 
central figure, and in the hall of the rotunda is a historic collection of 
engraved medals and bronze reliefs, contributed by a lady of Stockholm. 
Norwegian women display articles of needle-work, wood-carvings, and 
feather mats, through an Illinois industrial society whose members are of 
this nationality. A native woman on snow-shoes, with a basket of shells on 
her arm, stands at the entrance to the booth, and in the model of a 
Norwegian cabin are grouped figures of peasant girls in holiday, bridal, 
and every-day attire, with city ladies in more elaborate costumes. 

Soon after the Russo-Turkish war, Kate Marsden, an English woman and nurse 
of the Red Cross society, journeyed east to Siberia for the purpose of 
founding leper missions, and near the Swedish and Norwegian booths is a 
model of the village which she established in the province of Takutsk. It 
consists of two hospitals, a school, a church, houses for lepers, and 
their attendants, and workshops for those who retain the use of their 
limbs. Fronting the models, is a miniature of one of the miserable hovels 
in which she found a number of unfortunates lurking in their forest lair. 
In an adjoing booth the women of the cape of Good Hope display in neat 
designs their native grasses, shell and feather work, with musical 
instruments, brooms, pottery, and filigree work of Kaffir production, and 
figures of Bushmen in full dress. 

Mexico has a large and tastefully arranged exhibit. In the centre of her 
section are several cases filled with fancy-work, including artificial 
fruits and flowers, and fashioned in blossoms and twigs, 

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a ship under full sail, the latter made at a female school of art. The 
Ceylon tea-house is also an attractive spot, with its carved tables, its 
light draperies, its dainty cups of wood and china-ware, and its dark-
eyed, native damsels. At one corner is a small case of dolls and fancy-
work, contributed by the mission schools of the country, and across the 
passage-way, a more elaborate display of fine needle-work, from the school 
at Guntur, India, of which Lady Wenlock, wife of the governor of Madras, 
is patroness. 

Beyond are the exhibits of Belgium, Austria, Brazil, and Germany. 
Especially attractive among the light specimens of fancy-work, contributed 
by the women of Brazil, are the desings in vari-colored feathers and fish-
scales. By Belgium's queen and the ladies of her court was mainly gathered 
a small collection of embroideries, laces, and works of art, the queen 
sending two water-colors of her own execution. Austria's embroideries are 
the most noticeable features of her display. At the entrance to her 
pavilion is a screen painted by the archduchess Maria Theresa, and within 
are excellent imitations of ancient Polish carpets. 

By Germany was organized one of the most skilfully grouped exhibits in the 
building, largely due to the efforts of the president of her committee, 
Anne Schepeler-Lette, of Berlin, who for years has been a prominent figure 
in promoting the industrial education of women. The decorated china and 
leather, the laces, embroideries, and other specimens of needle-work were, 
as a rule, contributed by those who have received instruction in the 
industrial schools and societies of the empire. There is also an 
educational department, including higher instruction, domestic economy, 
and the public care and training of children. The collections of the 
kindergartens, the children's hospitals, and the sewing and cooking 
schools comprise statistics, plans, photographs, models, and speciments of 
handiwork and utensils, with explanations by Frobel, thus enabling one to 
study from its inception the system of industrial education. 

In another class is represented the industrial training afforded in the 
public schools of Breslau and Munich, and in various schools and societies 
throughout the empire. By 

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the woman's society of Baden, with its numerous branches, is illustrated 
its methods of training young women and caring for dependent children. 
Photography, drawing, cooking, printing, laundry work, book-keeping and 
art industries, are taught in establishments connected with the Lette 
society, and embroideries, drawings, sewed garments, printed books, 
artificial flowers, photographs, and other articles are displayed as 
specimens of the pupils' work. Special courses in dress-making, as taught 
at various institutions are illustrated by text books and paper models, 
while of domestic economy there are most interesting expositions. The 
committee which had the latter department in charge provided not only 
printed volumes bearing on the subject, but models of kitchens, cooking 
schools, and institutions for the education of servants and housekeepers. 
Samples of work produced by various charitable institutions, with a 
presentation of the professional labors of nurses, are also found in the 
German section, in the centre of which is the display of the Lette 
society, and above it a bronze bust of its founder. 

Returning to the gallery floor, we find there, opening on the eastern and 
western corridors, the various committee, assembly, and reception 
chambers, whose decorative features have already been 

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described, together with the library and the exhibits of the British 
training schools. The northern section is occupied by the assembly room 
and the model kitchen, and on the south is the organization department, 
where are the headquarters of the industrial, educational, religious, and 
other associations of women. The space set apart for this purpose, 
including nearly 12,000 square feet, is divided into more than sixty 
compartments by rails and curtains of blue silk, corresponding in color 
with the tints of the frescoed walls, and fomring the only lines of 
demarcation between the exhibits of the various societies, thus giving to 
the entire collection a social and cosmopolitan aspect. 

The largest area is occupied by the Woman's Christian Temperance union, 
representing more than 200,000 active members. On their walls are the 
banners of many local organizations, with portraits of such leaders in the 
cause as Frances Willard and Mary Clement Leavitt, the latter the first 
missionary to travel around the world for the purpose of organizing 
societies in the interests of temperance and social purity. Here is a 
monster petition to which are still being added the signatures of men and 
women in every portion of the earth; also a huge globe covered with the 
cards of four million children living in forty-four countries who have 
taken the pledge of total abstinence. A corner of this section, decorated 
with Japanese designs, and containing a large pendent bell composed of 
discarded opium pipes, calls attention to this branch of the reform, 
earnestly prosecuted by the union in Eastern countries. The booth is 
handsomely equipped, and in its exhibits is sufficient evidence of the 
world-wide progress of the cause. 

Adjoining this section is the booth of the Chicago Woman's club, whose 
membership includes many earnest workers in charitable, intellectual, and 
reformatory movements. Near by are the headquarters of the International 
board of the Young Woman's Christian Association, whose central offices 
are in St. Louis, and whose special object is to watch over the interests 
of young work-women. Among the homes erected for such persons, as shown by 
illustrations, the one in New York City is on the largest scale. From the 
forty branches of this association come exhibits of class work, and over 
each is the sign of the order, in the form of an ivory-tinted shield, 
finished in threads of blue and gold. 

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The booth of the order known as the King's daughters, whose silver cross 
has been carried into many far corners of the earth, is tastefully 
decorated with festoons and banners of purple, silver, and white. The 
order of the Eastern Star, an auxiliary to that of Freemasonry, unfurls a 
banner of black satin lettered in gold, and a symbolic sheaf of wheat. Its 
quarters are luxuriously furnished, with carpet of moquette, couches, and 
easy chairs. 

Without attempting to follow any special order of procedure, attention may 
be called to the work of several associations, as illustrated in this 
department. Home and foreign missionary societies occupy a considerable 
space, the latter displaying many curios gathered in connection with their 
work. Chinese women exhibit a banner of blue, gray, and gold, in honor of 
their American friends. A Japanese woman sends a robe, later to serve as 
her burial shroud, and over which are scrawled the blessings and 
consecrations of native priests. Converted heathendom has also contributed 
to the collection a Turkish prayer roll, and a Buddhist rosary. 

There are here represented associations for the rescue of fallen women; 
and by one known as the Girls' Friendly society, under the auspices of the 
episcopal church, is illustrated the work that it is doing, with a view to 
the protection of girls whose calling exposes them to temptation. In the 
booth of a Philadelphia society, whose members excluded by sickness from 
contact with the world, console each other by messages sent through an 
official organ; in that of a Philadelphia home, whose purposes are 
revealed in its pictures and stories of crippled children and in the 
quarters of the Woman's relief corps of Kansas, is shown what is being 
accomplished for the aid of those suffering from physical ailments. 

Seventeen unions and a very large membership are represented in the 
exhibits of the Woman's Education and Industrial association. Female 
suffrage is symbolized in various devices as on the azure ground of the 
American flag, with the great star of Wyoming, and the smaller symbols of 
Kansas and Michigan. There is also the irrepressible figure of Susan B. 
Anthony, in bust and portrait form, and in the shape of souvenirs. In 
conclusion much may be learned in this department as to federations and 
councils of women, industrial institutes, schools for needle-work, flower 
missions, ceramic clubs, and literary, scientific, and philanthropic 
organizations, all of which find expression among these collections. 
Results are further illustrated in a book of statistics, compiled under 
the direction of the Board of Lady Managers, giving the names and 
membership of the different bodies, with the number of women employed in 
every branch of work, thus enabling the visitor more fully to appreciate 
the significance of the display. 

Page 286

The walls of the staircases and vestibules are adorned with tapestries, 
not a few of them of oriental design, and of the galleries themselves many 
portions are tastefully embellished. A work which attracts general 
attention, but one less noted for its beauty than for its historic 
associations, is a reproduction of the famous Norman tapestry contained in 
the town-hall of Bayeux. The original is formed of a strip of linen, 200 
feet long by less than two in width, with figures, worked in colored 
worsted, depicting various episodes in the career of William the 
Conquereor, including his departure from Normandy, and his invasion of 
England. As tradition relates, it was fashioned by his wife, Matilda; but 
be this as it may, there is little doubt that the tapestry was made during 
the years whose events it depicts. The copy forms a border for the eastern 
corridor, where also are the national costumes of Spanish women, belonging 
to various provinces, with the dress of a mountaineer, made of long 
grasses and wisps of hay, and yet said to be water-proof. In the north-
eastern section of the gallery are the pictures contributed by Queen 
Victoria, and the princesses Christian, Louise, and Beatrice. In the 
northern corridor, from which open the large assembly room and model 
kitchen, is a chair of state from the Mexican government, and some rich 
tapestry work from London, and on the opposite side is a choice collection 
of French artistic embroidery. 

A favorite resort in the Woman's building is the model kitchen, with floor 
of tiling, its gas cooking-range and modern utensils, all scrupulously 
clean, and in the neatest order. During the sessions of the classes in 
cookery are submitted for the approval of visitors specimens of their 
culinary skill, among them the lightest of muffins, corn-starch, and so-
called Indian puddings. The kitchen is under the direction of Mrs. S. T. 
Rohrer, of Philadelphia, by whom were recently introducted in European 
countries, in conjunction with a government agent, all the various 
products of maize; and to illustrate the many uses to which those products 
may be applied is one of the purposes of the exhibit. Some of the recipes 
were furnished by an agent of the Smithsonian institution, who procured 
them while living among the Zunis. 

The Woman's library, furnished by the 

Page 287

women of New York, the ceiling decorated by Dora Wheeler Keith, contains 
some 7,000 volumes, written by women of every nation, and collected by 
committees in many states and countries. More than twenty-five 
nationalities are here represented in more than twenty languages, their 
dates of publication varying from 1587 to 1893. New York sends the largest 
collection of any of the states, France of the foreign countries, Great 
Britain and Spain the greatest number of rare books and manuscripts, the 
last a loan from the Biblioteca Nacional in Madrid. Some nations and 
states have sent also photographs and biographical sketches of their 
authors; others, as Sweden, bibliographies of the women of their country, 
and still others, as Connecticut and New Jersey, have printed handsome 
volumes containing representative articles from periodical writers, all 
prepared expressly for the occasion. New York's collection of club papers 
and periodical articles is type-written, and a marvel of completeness and 
mechanical execution. Nearly all these works are intended to form the 
nucleus of an international woman's library, to which additions will be 
constantly received. In the form of a card catalogue statistics have been 
prepared as to the career, education, and public work of each author, and 
when printed, will form a valuable biography of women. 

A collection of autographs and portraits of women of France, Great 
Britain, and America, the propery of Mrs. John Boyd Thacher, forms one of 
the attractions of the library. Another is a cabinet containing forty-
seven different translations and editions of Uncle Tom's Cabin, in front 
of which stands a bust of Harriet Beecher Stowe. An oil portrait fo Mrs. 
Sigourney and two leaves from her diary accompany the Connecticut books. 
Other American authors are also represented. 

At either side of the library proper are the halls of Record, their walls 
covered with diagrams, charts, and tables containing much information as 
to the number of women engaged in the professions, their ratio of savings, 
mortality, and emigration, with other phases of their condition and 
career. In the corridors adjacent is an exhibit organized by prominent New 
York families, consisting largely of historic embroideries, miniatures, 
watches, snuff-boxes, fans, and laces. 

But in the corridors the main attraction is the Keppel historic collection 
of engravings and etchings by women who have won repute in those branches 
of art. Among the first in chronological order are the plates engraved by 
Diana Ghisi of Mantua, between 1581 and 1588, most of them copies from 
Raphael, Tuccari, and Giulio Romano. France, Italy, Germany, and 

Page 288

England all furnished skilled female engravers and etchers to the world of 
art, from 1535 to 1835, and specimens of their work are here on 
exposition. Many of them were the pupils of male relatives who had 
previously made their mark, and among them were Angelica Kauffman and 
Caroline Watson, the former a Swiss whose works were chiefly produced in 
England, and the latter engraver royal to Queen Caroline. Finally in the 
form of a bust is a wood-cut by Marie de Medicis, bearing the date of 
1573. 

South of the library is the exhibit of the British training schools for 
nurses, the walls hung with portraits of women who have been leaders in 
the work, and with busts and statues of others scattered throughout the 
apartment. Under a portrait of Queen Victoria is a statue of Florence 
Nightingale, and near it a bust of Princess Christian, president of the 
Royal British Nurses' association, with a statue of Sister Dora, and a 
bookcase containing her keys, scissors, chains, and other personal 
effects, such as remind us of her devotion and self-sacrifice. In a work, 
there is an entire gallery of celebrities, not least among which is the 
figure or bust of Rohere, the founder of Saint Bartholomew's hospital in 
1122. 

In large glass cases are the exhibits illustrative of methods and 
appliances, among which are ligatures and bandages, thermometers for 
marking the temperature of fever patients, surgical dressings, ventilated 
corsets, hygienic shoes, and other articles of wear for the sick. District 
nurses and private nurses have their separate outfits, as here 
illustrated, and in the ward baskets are most ingenious contrivances for 
packing articles into the smallest space. In the oil-silk bags of Queen 
Victoria's jubilee nurses are stowed the cordials and medicines with which 
they relieve the poor. Models of apparatus used in medical and surgical 
treatment, designed by an employee of a homoeopathic hospital, form an 
interesting though painful study. The dainty lace caps worn by English 
nurses, the medals, badges, and decorations awarded for distinguished 
service in war and pestilence, and the models which represent the costumes 
worn in various hospitals, are also among the collection. 

Adjoining the exhibit of nurses' schools is a room which contains the 
overflow from the New York collections. It consists of articles donated by 
colored women of that state, and was organized by a colored female 
commissioner who well represents the capabilities of her race. In one 
corner is jewelry made by the natives of 

Page 289

West Africa, and elsewhere, specimens of cabinet work decorated in desings 
burned into the wood, with artistic embroideries, fans, and laces, and 
pictures in oil, water colors, and crayons. In the covers of a plush album 
is shown a sample of the first book-binding done by colored women. 

Scattered throughout the Woman's building are striking illustrations of 
the revival of art needle-work, which in the middle ages was almost the 
only industry that occupied the minds and hands of women. In this modern 
revival, which is of comparatively recent date, England and the United 
States have taken the lead, and in this connection may be quoted a few 
extracts from an article contributed to the Art Amateur by Mrs. Candace 
Wheeler, director of the department. 

"The old and familiar art of needle-work, the art which began when Eve 
sewed fig-leaves in the Garden of Eden, the art which has been the 
heritage of Eve's daughters in all ages of the world, has never in history 
made so great a showing or illustrated so conclusively its claim to rank 
as one of the great arts of the world. The needle-work of all the ages is 
here - stitchery which goes back to the time of the Beauvais tapestry, 
that historical treasure whose archaic story-telling renders it too 
precious for presence even in the wonder-time of the Columbian Exposition, 
and makes a reproduction of it a thing of national value. There are 
embroideries which are precious from every point fo view - from their 
antiquity, and the human interest which therefore attaches to them; from 
their methods, which have long been lost to the art; from the use of 
materials of a purity and preciousness almost unknown to modern 
manufacture, and from a color the subtlety of which only the painting of 
time can give, and which no dyes can rival. These qualities give a many-
sided value, which dwarfs 

Page 290

even the best and the most earnest of modern effort." 

"The first impression of all this collective wealth of embroidery is 
bewildering. One sees at a glance, almost, the first attempt side by side 
with the very latest development of the art. Examples of all countries as 
well as all times are here - of India, China, and Japan; of far-away 
Perisa; of Russia and Roumania; of Fayal and Ceylon; of Greece and Arabia; 
of south America and Mexico - the work of all races of women, wherever 
they exist or have existed, and wrought out their quiet days with the 
needle, sitting under palm and pomegranate. It is comparatively easy to 
mark the great divisions; but even to the practical observer schools and 
countries, uses and demands, have widely differentiated the methods and 
classes of these divisions. What we broadly call eastern work will be 
found to have very different characteristics and features. Chinese and 
Japanese, Persian, Indian, and Turkish embroideries differ from each other 
as do those of Italy, France, Germany, England, and Northern Europe. 
Embroideries of all periods characterize themselves. As a rule, eastern 
productions keep their separate characteristics through succeeding 
periods, so that it is difficult to fix their dates except approximately, 
and by condition of by quite obvious effects of time. Ancient Persian, and 
comparatively modern Persian, ancient Indian, and Indian embroideries of a 
hundred or even of fifty years ago, have the same style and methods, and 
use the same or nearly the same materials. Chinese, Japanese, Egyptian, 
and other Eastern peoples ahve scarcely changed their subjects or methods 
in a thousand years. 

"Most of the antique embroideries of Europe are found n the shape of altar 
hangings and vestments, for in the embroideries, as in the pictorial art 
of the early centuries, the Church was the great patron. Many of them were 
wrought in nunneries, and, in fact, could not be produced except in the 
quiet and uneventful life of the cloister, where color and stitchery made 
the one interest and contrast of colorless lives, and could therefore 
almost monopolize the thought of the inmate who produced them. There is 
certainly a peacefulness and repose of subject and treatment in these 
convent-wrought hangings very greatly in contrast with other embroideries. 
The grotesque and wicked fancies of some of the miraculously wrought 
Chinese embroideries of the same date make these seem like holy pictures 
of madonnas and saints, although no hint of figure is shown in the design. 
Convent embroideries form a class by themselves, belonging for the most 
part to the Italian school, and covering a large part of the lustrous, 
softly colored, and reverent needle-work of the fifteenth and sixteenth 
centuries in Italy. They are among the most attractive of all the antique 
pieces shown in the Columbian Exposition, and deserve almost individual 
notice and description." 

Page 291

Through the efforts of the Board of Lady Managers was built and furnished 
the Children's home, on ground adjoining the Woman's building, and forming 
of itself one of the educational features of the Fair. While intended 
mainly for the care of children too young to wander through grounds and 
buildings in company with parent or guardian, it is also in the nature of 
an exhibit, or rather of a series of exhibits, displaying the best of our 
nineteenth century methods of rearing and training children. First, may be 
mentioned the model creche, whose quarters are in a spacious, airy, and 
well lighted chamber, and where are shown from the earliest stages of 
infancy, the cradles and children's clothing of every age and nation, with 
the garments best suited in pattern, and material to the health and 
comfort of the child, and with brief lectures on these and kindred topics. 
Here, at a nominal charge, children are fed, amused, and cared for, the 
babies in an adjoining nursery, and older children according to age and 
conditions. In another apartment is a play-room suitably equipped, and 
there is a dining-room, kitchen, laundry, and drying room, all 
conveniently arranged. 

Then comes the kindergarten, furnished and managed by the International 
Kindergarten association, with modern apparatus, and with object lessons 
of value not only to children but to those intrusted with their care, 
whether as mothers or teachers. In connection with the kindergarten is the 
kitchen garden, where, by the founder of this system, pupils are 
instructed in cooking, and other household work, but in such interesting 
method that their labor is one of pleasure. There are also classes in 
physical culture, a gymnasium, an assembly hall, a children's library, and 
a special department, equipped by the women of Pennsylvania, where may be 
observed the process of imparting to deaf mutes the faculty of speech. 

The gymnasium in the centre of the interior court is furnished with dumb-
bells, bars, swings, vaulting horses, and other appliances for the 
physical education of children. In cases and on stands around the 
gymnasium is a large collection of toys of many varieties, from those 

Page 293

of ancient and savage nations to the most recent devices fashioned for the 
amusement and instruction of childhood. There are the Punch and Judy and 
Mother Goose of England, shaggy-haired dogs from Russia, dolls and 
furniture from France, kite lanterns from China, and on the second floor, 
Japanese models of acrobats, and domestic gods, with samples of articles 
used in various national games. An elaborate display represents a child's 
Christmas in Spain, with models of lordly castles and humble cottages, 
tiny figures of children engaged in the festivities of their country, and 
a wide expanse of miniature landscape. At one of the entrances is an 
Indian wigwam filled with native toys, and at another kindergarten 
literature, and a book composed of autographic inscriptions dedicated to 
children, among them contributions from Oliver Wendell Holmes, Canon 
Farrar, the Shah of Persia, George W. Cable, and Rudyard Kipling. 

For older children more solid entertainment is provided at the Fair, many 
of them illustrated by the stereoptico. Then, under proper care, they are 
permitted to view the collections of which the lecture treats, and thus to 
compare what they have heard with the exhibits of the country described. 
The outer walls of the library are covered with the sketches and 
manuscripts of authors who have made juvenile literature a specialty. To 
these and to the collection of books, selected and arranged with reference 
to age and capability, some of the publishing houses contributed. Of 
magazines and periodicals, principally American, English, French, and 
German, there is also a large assortment. 

In one of the apartments instruction is given in the arts of wood-carving 
and clay-modelling, and in another is illustrated the process of teaching 
the deaf and dumb. In the latter children four or five years of age are 
taught to observe the movements of throat and lips, and the expressions of 
the face, in the articulation of words; for it is the theory of their 
instructors that, if taken in time, no case is hopeless, unless there 
exists some physical deformity of the mouth. There is also a room where 
the Ramona Indian school, of Santa Fe, New Mexico, displays its methods of 
teaching native children, a class of girls furnishing the living material 
for the illustration. The school was named after the novel written by 
Helen Hunt Jackson, and was partially 

Page 296

modelled in accordance with the theories therein advanced. On the gallery 
floor Charity is represented in this sphere of her mission by a group in 
marble from the atelier of Lorado Taft, a woman on bended knee parting in 
tears from her child, which nestles in the arms of the central figure, as 
with words of cheer and comfort she bids adieu to the sorrow-striken 
mother. 

As with the entire display of Woman's industry and art, so with its 
Children's home, we have here a feature of the Exposition, of general, as 
well as of special interest. Just as the manufacturer, the machinist, or 
the electrician may study in their several departments the highest 
achievements of the inventor or the mechanic, so may all classes of 
visitors observe in the Children's building the most improved and 
enlightened methods for the rearing and education of children. In its 
creche, its kindergarten, its kitchen-garden, its playground, gymnasium, 
library, assembly-room, workshop, furniture, and even in its toys, are 
illustrated the best and most recent appliances and methods which our 
nineteenth century civilization has evolved for the training of those who 
are soon to take our places in the arena of life, now demanding, as never 
before, that he who enters the lists should be fully equipped for the 
struggle. 

Beginning with the creche, where, in an airy and cheerful apartment, are 
shown the most rational modes of dressing and caring for young children, 
there is placed before us all that conduces to physical, intellectual, and 
moral development, all that expands child-nature and gives to childlife a 
healthful and vigorous growth. In the kindergarten and kitchengarden are 
object lessons of practical value to mothers and teachers; the former a 
playschool where instruction is conveyed in entertaining form, 

Page 297

and the latter also a place of recreation where young girls take a pride 
and pleasure in learning the art of housekeeping. So with the school for 
sloyd, with its exhibit of wood-carving, and the classes for physical 
culture, in connection with the American Turner-Bund. The library is also 
a most attractive feature, with its tasteful and comfortably furnished 
room, its books and periodicals from many lands, and in many languages. To 
gather this collection was of itself a task of no slight difficulty, for 
publishers refused, as a rule, to contribute, overburdened as they were, 
with solicitations from other quarters. But the managers were equal to the 
occasion, and addressing letters to American and European writers in the 
line of juvenile literature, thus secured, as a nucleus, a large number of 
authors' copies and autographs. To these, many others were added, 
including illustrated works, magazines, and newspapers, manuscripts, 
sketches, photographs, prints, and portraits. All these were selected, as 
far as possible, from the standpoint of the child, and not of the adult, 
such works being placed on the shelves and tables as children loved to 
read, and not as their elders might wish them to have. 

Such is one of the many good works that the Board of Lady Managers has 
accomplished, and this it has done through its own unaided efforts, 
formulating its plans, erecting and furnishing its building, and raising 
the funds entirely through its own exertions, for by the Exposition 
management not a single dollar was appropriated for the purpose, this not 
from indifference but because not a dollar could be spared from its 
treasury. To get together this Children's home that nestles almost under 
the eaves of the Woman's edifice, was in truth an undertaking that taxed 
to the utmost their already overstrained resources; but it was to them a 
labor of love, and in the gratitude of thousands of children, of thousands 
of mothers, in the unspoken but none the less heartfelt sympathy of 
millions of visitors from every quarter of the world, they have found a 
just reward. Says one of the contributors to a recent work on the Woman's 
department, written by members of the board or by those who have their 
cause at heart: "It has been a great outlay of time and strength that the 
money for the Children's building has been raised and judiciously 
expended; but no one of the many workers who have contributed these 
building materials, time, and strength, have grudged the costly sacrifice 
they have made. We believe not only that the children who enjoy our 
building's hospitality will be benefited by our work, but that the 
children in every state of this republic, in every country of the world 
will directly or indirectly profit by it, and in this 

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happy result we shall find an ample recompense for what we have done." 

Thus has the Board of Lady Managers, in conjunction with state and foreign 
boards, representing the most advanced and enlightened views of woman's 
sphere and woman's work, presented a complete exposition of what women 
have done and are doing in the cause of their sex, in the cause of their 
home, of education, charity, science, art, and in every branch of human 
endeavor, where is felt the all-pervading influence of woman's hand, and 
heart, and brain. Never before has been attempted so full and exhaustive a 
representation of feminine achievement, and capability. And especially do 
these collections illustrate the professin this direction of the United 
States; for nowhere else have the disabilities of women been so largely 
removed; nowhere does woman play so prominent a part as bread-winner, as a 
competitor with man in the several vocations wherein she is fitted to 
compete. 

If in the United States the number of bread-winners is smaller than among 
European nations, it is because there is less need for them to earn their 
bread, though many do so from choice, or for what Burns has described as 
the glorious privilege of being independent. On the other hand there is no 
country in the world where the avocations of women are so diversified or 
so largely represented in commercial and professional circles. According 
to recent data there are nearly 3,000,000 women and girls who are self-
supporting, many of them contributing to the support of others, and with 
at least an equal number who provide in part for their own maintenance. Of 
these more than 14,000 are at the head of business firms or conduct a 
business of their own, and 26,000 are employed as clerks and book-keepers. 
Of school-teachers there are 155,000; of teachers of music and 
professional musicians, 13,000; of physicians and surgeons 2,400, and of 
chemists and pharmacists nearly 2,000. Of 

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journalists there are 600, of authors known to fame about half that 
number, while more than 200 are practising lawyers or architects. But most 
remarkable of all is the number engaged in farming, planting, and stock-
raising, in which pursuits no less than 59,000 women are represented. Such 
is the part that woman plays in the great workshop of our western 
republic, as, with the lapse of years, she rises slowly but surely toward 
the higher plane of her destiny. 

One by one the disqualifications of women have been laid aside, their 
legal rights asserted, and acknowledged, so that in many of the states 
they share nearly all the political priveleges and civic duties pertaining 
to citizenship. In Wyoming, Washington, and Utah women may vote and serve 
on juries; in Kansas there are municipalities where the office of mayor 
has been filled by women; in Pennsylvania they may be appointed masters in 
equity, and in New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and in several of the 
western states as notaries public, commissioners of deeds, administrators, 
and executors. By the general government they may be commissioned as post-
mistresses, army surgeons, captains of steamboats, and even as United 
States marshals. With some exceptions, our leading universities have not 
been slow to recognize the claims of women to such opportunities for 
higher and special branches of education as are accorded to men. At many 
of the law schools, the schools of medicine, surgery, dentistry, music, 
and the fine arts, women are trained and graduated, on department only 
closing its doors against them, and that is the department of theology. 
Thus, it will be seen that women can no longer be excluded on the ground 
of mental inferiority, and those who would advocate such exclusion must do 
so on other grounds. 

"Women," says Ariosto, "have risen to high excellence in every art whereto 
they have given their care." And never since these words were written has 
been presented, until this year of 1893, a complete exposition of what 
woman has done, and is doing in the great workshop of the world. Here is 
in truth a complete and life-like representation of woman's condition 
among all the nations of earth, one relating especially to the great army 
of wage earners, many of whom labor under adverse conditions, their task 
injurious to health and their daily pittance barely sufficing for their 
daily bread. But here is also shown how women may find more congenial and 
profitable sources of employment, may learn how best to prepare themselves 
for new opportunities, and how to take advantage of the, each one 
according to her ability. 

Of all the lessons of the Exposition there are none that will be longer 
remembered than those which the Woman's department has taught us, and to 
none is more credit due than to the Board of Lady Managers, forming, with 
its associated boards, an organization of women for the common benefit of 
woman-kind such as has never before existed in the history of the world. 
Theirs was the hardest task of all, and never perhaps was success more 
hardly won; never were the barriers of prejudice and apathy more difficult 
to overcome. 

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From oriental countries especially came most discouraging reports; for 
there were neither schools nor women with intelligence equal to the work. 
Many European countries were at first indifferent though later responding 
nobly to the invitation. Says the president of the Board: "We travelled 
together a hitherto untrodden path; we were subjected to tedious delays; 
and overshadowed with dark clouds which threatened disaster to our 
enterprise. We were obliged to march with peace offerings in our hands, 
lest hostile motives should be ascribed to us. When our invitations were 
sent to foreign lands, the commissioners already appointed generally 
smiled doubtfully, and explained that their women were doing nothing; that 
they would not feel inclined to help us, and in many cases stated that it 
was not the custom of their country for women to take part in any public 
effort." 

But to the women of every land, to women who have near at heart the cause 
of their sex, who would not merely live a life of ease without a thought 
for their less fortunate sisters, personal letters were addressed 
soliciting their cooperation, and with most favorable results. Then it was 
that what had been merely a hope began to assume reality, and, contines 
the president, "our burdens were greatly lightened by the spontaneous 
sympathy and aid which have reached us from women in every part of the 
world, and which have proved an added incentive and inspiration." When 
first the Womans' building was designed, the managers were somewhat 
doubtful as to filling its space with creditable exhibits; but long before 
it was opened applications were made for four or five times the available 
room, thus permitting a selection of the choices and most attractive 
speciments of female work. Most fitting it is that the best of these 
specimens, including the Woman's library, should find a permanent home in 
a memorial building, there to serve as a nucleus for still more valuable 
collections. 

World's Fair Miscellany 

Adjoining the western vestibule of the Woman's building is a bureau where 
women are specially employed to furnish information or to act as guides 
through the grounds and buildings, and, if desired, through the city. The 
parlors and reception rooms were arranged and furnished with a view to the 
comfort and convenience of visitors, all of whom are permitted to use them 
free of expense. 

In the rotunda of the Administration hall is a model of the treasury 
building at Washington, constructed of souvenir half dollars, twenty feet 
long, eleven in width, and four in height, placed there since the 
foregoing part of this work was put in print. 

The correspondence maintained by the Board of Lady Managers was second 
only in bulk to that of the department of Publicity and Promotion, and 
included in its scope all social, charitable, reformatory, educational, 
literary, and art associations, together with women's exchanges, unions, 
and alliances of whatever description, throughout the United States, and 
in many foreign lands. 

It was early determined that awards in the shape of medals or certificates 
should be made by juries or examining boards, in token of merit only, and 
as an acknowledgment of progress in the art or craft represented in the 
exhibits. 

For the sale of exhibits by individuals, woman's exchanges, educational 
and decorative art societies, a cooperative system was arranged, each 
association or individual paying its proportion of the expenses. Twenty 
per cent is charged on all sales effected by employees of the management. 
None of the articles sold could be removed until the close of the 
Exposition except through concession granted by the committee on ways and 
means, and all articles admitted for sale must either represent the 
original work of exhibitors or such as their work had largely increased in 
value. 

The so-called golden nail, driven home by Mrs. Potter Palmer at the 
dedication ceremonies, was made of pure copper, silver and gold. It was 
designed as the cross-bar of a brooch fashioned in the form of a shield 
representing Montana's state seal and coat of arms. In the foeground is a 
waterfall, behind which is a range of mountains wrought in copper, and 
encircled by a sunset effect in gold. The brooch is enclosed in a band of 
gold, with a farmer and prospector on either side, the former grasping a 
golden rake, and the latter a golden pick. In the centre, between these 
figures, is a Montana sapphire, appearing like a star in the sky depicted 
beneath. At the conclusion of the ceremonies the nail was withdrawn, 
returned to its place behind the brooch, and both were presented to Mrs. 
Palmer. The hammer used on this occasion was a handsome piece of 
workmanship furnished by the women of Nebraska. 

Forty thousand souvenir coins, with a face value of a 

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quarter of a dollar, were issued from the government mint for the use of 
the Board of Lady Managers. On one side is a woman with a distaff, the 
figure encircled by the inscription, Board of Lady Managers, Columbian 
Quarter; on the reverse side a profile of Queen Isabella, after whom the 
coin was named. 

At a meeting of the Board of Lady Managers, on July 31, 1893, it was 
resolved to establish a building fund for the erection of a permanent 
structure commemorative of the work of woman at the World's Fair. It was 
agreed to reserve as a nucleus for the fund the premium realized from the 
sale of the Isabella souvenir coins, amounting to $30,000, and to this sum 
Mrs. Potter Palmer added her salary, amounting to some $9,000. 

Affixed to all the official documents of the New York Board of Lady 
Managers is a seal which recalls an oft-told tale in connection with the 
Columbian discovery, yet one which women love to repeat. The design 
represents an Indian woman standing upon a rocky shore, gazing anxiously 
seaward, and waving a torch high above her head, thus idealizing the story 
that the light which Columbus saw was the signal with which an Expanolan 
spouse beckoned homeward her belated lord. 

The collection of antique and other laces in the Italian section is one of 
special interest, representing, as it does, a history of the art of lace-
making from its earliest inception. this forms one of the most valuable 
collections extant, many of the speciments being worth from $12 to $80 a 
yard according to width and pattern. There are also copies of historic 
laces, including some of the queen's laces, one of them presented to her 
nieve, the Princess Letitia Buonaparte, on the occasion of her marriage to 
a younger brother of the king. 

Worthy of note in the education section is an exhibit by the Pratt 
institute, of Brooklyn, including rugs, draperies, portieres, wallpapers, 
and silver-ware, designed by its graudates, and manuafactured by various 
establishments. Wood-carvings and costumes for women and infants were 
supplemented by variuos illustrations of the practical application of 
domestic science. Tests are given for detecting the presence of arsenic in 
paper-hangings, and upholstery, and of deleterious substances in baking 
powders, and washing fluids. Then there are charts of a model kitchen, and 
specimens of fine laundry work and pure soaps, with a collection of books 
containing information as to the various branches of domestic and 
industrial work. 

Kate Marsden, the English nurse of the Red Cross society, whose work among 
the lepers of Siberia, as elsewhere noticed, attracted sledge, boat, and 
on horseback, to find a certain herb said to be a specific for leprosy. On 
reaching the district where it grew, she found it to be of no value. The 
book describing her experience, and entitled On Sledge and Horseback to 
Outcast Siberian Lepters, created a sensation when published in London. 
Princess Christian presented Miss Marsden with the badge of the Royal 
British Nurses' association, and she was elected a fellow of the Royal 
Geographical society. 

Mrs. French-Sheldon, whose African expedition is mentioned in the text, 
travelled through the dark continent with a caravan organized and equipped 
at her own expense. She was unattended, as I have said, by any of her sex, 
her party consisting of 200 porters, who carried the provisions and 
outfit, with presents for distribution among the tribes. The palanquin in 
which she lived and wrote is displayed in the Transportation building, and 
most of the curios collected during the journey are in the ethnological 
section of the Woman's department.