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

IN THE WOMAN’S BUILDING. 285 uals among peoples whose glory has become a fable. The real, premanent result of what women have done in connection with the World’s Fair lies in the inscrutable future. It forms a tiny link in the great chain of human progress. Human nature, however, is a curious combination of the finite and infinite, and while we are satisfied to believe that the record of our work will be found writ- ten upon the page of to-morrow, we have a desire for something which we call real and permanent, but which is in fact perishable and evanescent. We are not content to have planted a seed which shall grow to a tree, putting forth many blossoms. We want to see at least one little sprig bloom and bear. We women, are thrifty, practical beings, and it is probable that every one of us who has DESIGNS FOR LACE. Nina French. United States. labored, in a little or large degree, for our building, desires that the memory of her labor shall be perpetuated in those perishable materials, brick and mortar, marble and iron. The Kensington Museum is one of the outgrowths of the first exposition, held in London in the year 1857. This institution is the finest museum of industrial art in the world. It has had much to do with the improved standard of taste which has been so noticeable in England during the last half of the century. The artist and artisan study liere the best examples in wood-carving-, pottery, embroidery, metal-work, etc. Designing has been digni- fied into an art, where it was formerly a trade. There is a wide-spread feeling that the nucleus of such a