Art and Handcraft in the Woman's Building
of the World's Columbian Exposition

ART AND HANDICRAFT IN THE WOMANS BUILDING. THE GROWTH OF THE WOMAN’S BUILDING. THE authorization of a Board of Lady Managers by Congress came by the natural process of evolution, and was the direct result of the good work done by women at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia and the succeeding Cotton Centennial at New Orleans. In Philadelphia the Woman’s Commission, led by Mrs. Gillespie, worked long and earnestly, not only to bring together the exhibits shown in the Woman's Department, but to raise the funds necessary to build the woman’s pavilion and to provide the opening chorus, which was composed for the occasion by Wagner, and sung by a thousand children’s voices. The creation of the Department of Public Comfort, which grew to be of immense value and impor- tance, was the suggestion of the women, though the men adopted and enlarged upon it. The work done was heroic, and the leaders deserved to be immortalized for the tremendous results brought about with so little outside aid. In New Orleans, at the Cotton Centennial, Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, aided by one woman commissioner from each State and Territory, did a grand work. When the women’s exhibit was brought together in New Orleans, it was found that the Exposition Company had not funds enough to enable the managers to fit up their department and show their goods. Mrs. Howe then made a direct appeal to Congress, through some of her friends who were members of that body, and the sum of $15,000 was voted to the Woman’s Department in order to help them out of their uncom- fortable situation. The valuable work done by these two organi- zations of women had prepared the public mind so thoroughly for the cooperation of women, in exposition work that when the matter (9)