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

IN THE WOMAN’S BUILDING. 39 room, a bright, cheerful apartment, whose simple and appropriate decoration we owe to Miss Sheldon of Hartford. We come next to the first of the two Record rooms, which on either side connect with the library. Here are kept the statistics of woman’s work in many countries, which have been collected with such patient research. A frieze formed of panels of native wood, designed and carved by women from our different States, is an interesting feature of this room. From a purely artistic standpoint the library is the most important feature of the building, after the Hall of Honor. Its deco- ration has been intrusted to Mrs. Wheeler. As the heavy doors swing to, we find our- selves in a well-proportioned room, whose chief and most valued quality is that of harmony. The eyes, tired with the great demand which has been made upon them, rest gratefully upon the green and gold of the walls. The visitor sinks into a chair, and for a long time thinks of nothing but the pleasant coolness of the place. The room has a character and individuality that we rarely find save in the house of some esthetic lover of books. The beautiful dark carved- oak book-cases are filled to overflowing with books by women of all nations. Every room has its own climate—we know whether we are visiting in the arctic, the temperate, or the torrid zone five minutes after entering SKETCH FOR GLASS WINDOW. Mrs. Parrish. United States. a strange house. Our library is in the tem- perate zone—the best climate for the scholar and the dilettante. To such a visitor there is no single apartment in the whole Fair where he will find himself so pleasantly at home. The chief decoration of this room is the ceiling __the work of Dora Wheeler Keith. In undertaking this arduous labor Mrs. Keith attacked the most difficult branch of decoration, and the artist is to be congratulated that she lias painted what is per- haps the rarest thing in the whole range of art, a successful ceiling. The ornamentation is rich and original. A wide border of scroll-work forms the outer edge. Inside of this we have a very beautifully painted piece of drapery, enriched here and there with